Fitfully Infrequent Manifesto

Updated December 9, 2002

With one eye on the issues...

• 12/9/02 - Well, where did I leave off? Oh yeah,

• 4/21/02 - Earthquake! We're lying in bed on Saturday, April 20th @ about 6:50 EDT, when the bed begins to shake. It wakes me and The Wife up, and I notice I hear our walk-in closet doors rattling.  I open my eyes, sit up, and look at the dresser mirror and notice it is waving about.  While I scan the room for a cause, The Wife decides it must be a big wind and looks out the window.  I realize then that no wind was going to make the closet doors shake like they are, and that we must be experiencing an earthquake.  By this time our excited voices have The Kid sitting up in his bed, too, listening anxiously to our conversation. Elapsed time of the tremors, in my estimation, 15 - 45 seconds.  I don't know how long it was going before I fully became conscious.  I called my parents at around 7am, and they hadn't felt or heard anything about it.  I went downstairs and turned on the PC, while the wife turned on the TV.  No news yet.  However, by 7:30, it was hitting the airwaves on both our local NBC affiliate and on CNN.  Read about the earthquake on the US Geological Survey web site, ABC news, and our local NBC affiliate's website.

• I recently returned from a week in Palm Springs attending the Advisor Media WebSphere DevCon.  The conference was challenging, as I'm not really a Java programmer but a beginning WebSphere administrator.  Palm Springs was nice, with weather that was excellent - sunny and temps ranging from upper 80's to low 100's.  I got a quick burn and had more than my fill of Coronas and limes by the time we were done.   Funny thing is, out there the local stations tout their seismographic capabilities just like the local stations here tout their advanced warning radar for thunderstorms.   I saw several commercials for "Seismo 3" on the Palm Springs' NBC affiliate.  Who'd have guessed that I'd experience my first quake back on the EAST coast?

• The Kid is starting up Little League after having finished his YMCA basketball season in spectacular fashion.  After having gone winless during their regular season (0-8?), they entered the season-ending tournament as the last seed, and lost only one game on their way to a stunning upset of the two seed in the championship game.  Didn't mean much, but the kids loved it - the adults on the other teams were less than enthused, wanting to play another game because they had the same tournament record as our team.  Too bad - win it when it counted, guys....   This Little League season is shaping up to be interesting as well, as The Kid is now one of the oldest players on his team, and appears to be one of the top 3 players to boot.  This will be a first, so we'll see how his leadership develops.

• 3/9/02 - My Lasik results weren't as perfect as I had hoped for, but they are by no means problematic.  My vision is very good in my left eye, but my right eye continues to be what I call weak.  It's interesting that my follow-up exams have consistently determined I've got 20/20 vision in my right eye.  However, I previously could see much clearer when I wore my glasses for both eyes.  Where I could stand a good 10 feet away from a computer monitor and read the contents, I now have to be within 3-4 feet of it in order to see it.  I mentioned to Dr. Belin, my Lasik doctor, that I would probably get glasses again so I could wear them when my eyes are tired (a common side effect of Lasik patients), and he said I shouldn't need them for about 10 years.  I don't think he understood that I meant I was going to get them NOW.  Other persistent side effects are diminished low light vision and halos around any bright lights.  Tail & brake lights on vehicles at night are a minor irritation now.  I'm hoping the glasses would help that situation to some extent.

• The Kid is playing basketball at the Y again this session.  His team isn't doing all that hot, but he has fun anyway.  They seem to keep in the game and haven't really been blown out much. He's a little hesitant about baseball this year because he has a new coach for the first time in a few years.   We've seen this guy in action during previous years, and us parents are probably more hesitant than The Kid is.  The coach is a bit overenthusiastic, and tends to get on kids a bit more than we've experienced.  Some would argue it is what you'll get in the real world, but I'd like to think that attitude can wait a few more years.

• 12/20/01 - Just had my follow-up visit w/ Dr. Belin.  He still says my right eye is healing, and that my vision is 20/15 in the left, and 20/20 in the right.  I agree that I can see very well with the left eye, but my right eye is still blurry when looking at fine print, or contrasting colors - such as white lettering on a black background.  Dr. Belin says to give it 6 months.

• The Wife has been awarded "Employee of the Year" at work.  This came as a mild surprise, as she was warned by the department head she does most of her programming for that he had submitted her name.   She'll get a special parking spot for her year-long reign as EOY, and is now telling me that she needs a new car since it'll be very visible and easily identified as hers.  What became a bigger surprise was my receiving a letter at work today informing me that I had been an also-ran nominee by a manager in my department.   While it's nice to be recognized for your efforts, I wouldn't want the public pomp and circumstance that comes with it.  Well, maybe the parking space.  That was a bullet ducked!

• Christmas shopping in this area this year has completely sold me on the merits of online shopping.  The Internet is my god, and I worship it frequently.  It gives me pleasure and provides me with employment.   What else is there?

• 11/8/01 - I sit here bleary eyed, but glasses-free, typing away on my PC.  I underwent Lasik vision correction surgery on Friday morning, 11/2/01, and actually came away relatively intact this time.  For those who aren't aware, I attempted to have Lasik surgery performed last January 2001 at a place called LasikPlus, in Corporate Woods in Albany, NY.  Big mistake to have chosen LasikPlus on price.  I'll put up a full page dedicated to this story soon, but in the meantime, I'd like to give credit to TLC Vision, also in Corporate Woods, and the excellent Dr. Michael W. Belin, who performed my surgery.  He assured me, after consulting with me about my experiences at LasikPlus, that I would have no problems with him, and I haven't had any so far.  My vision is pretty good to date (20/15 L & 20/20 R), but does fluctuate at times - as is to be expected for the first 4-6 weeks after the procedure, and even sometimes for up to 6 months. My left eye is pretty clear, my right is a bit fuzzy, and neither eye appears to be as good as when I had my glasses, but they are close.  I work, drive, and do everything else without glasses.  I'm guardedly optimistic, which my wife says is the 'dad' in me, but she seems to think I'll have perfect vision.  Hoping so, since the big plus of the procedure is to avoid glasses, but even if I still need them, it is good to be able to function without needing them, just in case I had to.

• Ever wonder what a LASIK procedure is like?   Here's my story:

  • 8:15am - Arrive at the TLC Vision office and check in.  Meet with an 'associate' who will discuss some of the details of your procedure with you, walk you thru the medical waiver, witness your signature, and then discuss your payment options.  I became a bit nervous when she asked me if I had started my antibiotic eye drops the night before - I hadn't - but I explained it wasn't stated in the pre-op instruction sheet.  Seems I was given an older version of the sheet at Dr. Belin's private office.  No big deal.  Read thru the waiver, which if that doesn't scare you off, with all the discussion of possible (but unlikely) side effects, then you're pretty brave.  I just kept thinking of the dozen co-workers who had the surgery and raved about it.  That would make me 'lucky 13'.  The lady then goes on to explain how to act during the procedure.  "The doctor will talk to you, but do not acknowledge the doctor.  Don't shake your head that you understand and don't speak.   Simply do what the doctor asks you to do.  Otherwise just lie still."   Seems simple.  As we get up to leave the room, my wife asks "He will get something to calm him down, right?".  The associate responds "Oh yes, he'll get drugs.  We love drugs here."  That's good news to me, just in case I have a LasikPlus flashback.

  • I'm then led back to sit in a waiting room with one other lady.  This woman appears to be in her late 40's/early 50's, and almost immediately begins talking with me.  She volunteers that she's from Vermont, and does a lot of traveling in South & Central America.  She does volunteer work for Childrens Relief Fund, and finds that if she breaks her glasses or loses them in the remote locations she visits, then it is very difficult to get repairs or replacements.   That makes my story seem pretty lame in comparison ("Well, I've been bullied by my co-workers to get this done because it's great").  An assistant to Dr. Belin walks in and shows me a medication book and states that I should sign right next to my name.  As I look at the book, I notice everyone else before me listed in there has the value '0.5' under the heading 'Dosage'.  My entry? '1.0'.  Double dose - nice!  The assistant explains that it's Xanax - an anti-anxiety drug.  I swallow it down and try to determine over the next few minutes if I feel any more relaxed (less stressed) than I did before. Maybe a bit?  Not sure.   In the meantime my woman friend is led into the operating room by another male assistant.  The female assistant gets me and leads me to an exam room.  Dr. Belin enters, shakes my hand, and tells me I'll do fine. That's it - a 10 second pep talk, and I'm back in the waiting room.  I switch the TV to ESPN and try to keep my mind off what's going to happen next.  Before I know it (10 minutes?), my friend is coming back out of the operating room and I hear her request to visit the bathroom.  As she passes by the waiting room she looks in at me and gives me a jovial hand wave.  Seeing her in a happy mood and able to walk around by herself is probably more effective than the Xanax - either that, or it kicked in at that same time.  Next thing I know, the male assistant has come for me, and leads me into the operating room.

  • I lie down on the table when asked, and scoot myself down so that my head is positioned correctly on the head rest.  I ask the assistant if he watched any of the Yankees or Monday Night Football (on Thursday because of the World Series).  In the meantime, I'm hoping the lack of sleep from last night (because of a leak that developed in my humidifier valve @ 10:45 pm and required me to drain some of the hot water heater water in order to fix) won't affect my success this morning.  The assistant then puts some numbing drops in my eyes, and warns me they will sting - and boy do they.  I make faces while he apologizes for the discomfort, but the stinging stops within 15 seconds or so.  Dr. Belin then makes his appearance in the operating room, and I clam up right away.  He puts a small pillow under my head and then inflates it to help support my head and keep it from moving side to side.  The pillow comes up around my head on both sides.   The associate who gave me instructions prior to going into the room had told me not to cross my legs on the table, so I suppress the urge to do that.  The doctor then swings the table under the laser, which appears to only be about 10 inches from my face.   I can see a small red dot - that must be what you are supposed to stare at during the laser's work.  I've been scared that my eyes will wander involuntarily while I try to watch that light, and my  eyes won't get corrected as best they could.   However, I'm more nervous about just surviving the session.

  • Off we go!  I'm instructed to close both eyes (no head nod or vocal acknowledgement!) and am told that a solution of soap and disinfectant is being swabbed on my eyelids near my eyelashes.  Sounds like a nasty combo to get in your eyes, so I keep them closed.  A few seconds later I'm told to open them.  We start with the right eye (Darn, I forgot to tell them to do the left eye first - that way, if we have a problem again then I've only screwed up the same eye that got screwed up before..)  I'm then instructed to look up towards the top of my head while the doctor places tape on my lower eyelids - one piece that pulls it down a bit, then a second piece that pulls it down even farther.  Next I'm told to look down towards my feet and the same thing happens on the upper lid.  Ahh, speculum time!   This was where I really became uncomfortable at LasikPlus, but it goes much smoother this time.  Could it be that LasikPlus cranked it much wider than Dr. Belin did?  It isn't nearly as painful as before, and it becomes easy to deal with quickly.   Next up is 'the ring', the suction ring which will hold the microkeratome to my eye.   This is not fun, as Dr. Belin needs to apply some pressure on it in order to make sure it sticks good to your eyeball.  Think of someone pushing a suction cup on the wall - it isn't done with that much force, but it isn't pleasant, either.  I can feel my head trying to bury itself backwards in order to get away from the pressure.   After a second or 2, it's secure.  The microkeratome is then attached - I don't know what it looks like because I've got this ring on my eye which limits my vision peripherally, and as soon as the keratome is attached and it vacuum seals itself to your eye surface, your vision goes black.  It then makes a small motorized noise and I can feel some tickling sensation of water spray on my cheek.  The keratome sucks the eyeball surface to itself, and then cuts horizontally across the eye creating a flap of the epithelial layer of the cornea.  Dr. Belin removed the microkeratome and then I hear him murmur a comment to his assistant (Uh oh, this is how the trouble began at LasikPlus, except that the doctor got into a small argument with the assistant about the problems with the microkeratome).  Dr. Belin explains there are some "extra epithelial cells' on the flap, but nothing to worrly about (Whew!!!).  I can see what looks like tweezers approaching my eye and then he pulls back the corneal flap that's been created.   What blows your mind is that you can see all of this going on - the only time you really can't see is when the flap is being made!  Once the flap has been laid over ( I believe the flap is left connected at the side towards your nose), the doctor then swabs the exposed corneal tissue with a bright white triangular swab.   You see it, but you don't feel it. 

  • OK, laser show time! The doctor instructs me to look at the small red light and to keep my eye focused on it.  This is a bit easier than I anticipated because, although my left eye is covered by a cloth, it remains open and I can pretend I'm looking at the light with both eyes.  Without having to concentrate on squinting one eye closed and one eye opened, it's pretty easy to do.  The doctor then warns me I'll hear a rushing noise of air and some small electrical zaps from the laser.  The air noise is a ventilation system that sucks away the smoke produced from vaporizing your corneal tissue with the laser.  The laser noise isn't nearly as loud as I had heard at LasikPlus (that LasikPlus laser sounded like a bug hitting the bugzapper).  However, I do catch a whiff of the corneal tissue vaporization and it isn't pleasant.  I keep looking at the light, and notice it's a bit blurry, but I keep focusing on the part that seems brightest.  Before I know it, the eye is done.  The doctor looks at it a bit, and then replaces the corneal flap.   Once the flap is laid back in place, he uses those same white triangular swabs to smooth it back out and to take the wrinkles out - kind of like hanging wallpaper.  He then informs me that because there was a small irregularity with the corneal flap that he's going to put a bandage contact in the eye (Oh no! Shades of LasikPlus again) but the contact goes in just fine and my eye adjusts to it.  I can see pretty clearly out of it already, although there is a small haze over everything - sort of like looking out a window that has fine condensation on it.  He then instructs me to gently close my eye, which I do, and then to open it again, which I do.   The eye passes the test, and he puts a temporary light gauze bandage over it.

  • On to the next eye.  Very similar to the first eye, except that there is no murmuring after the microkeratome does its job, and I don't get much of a whiff of my corneal tissue this time.  I do, however, notice the red light is much clearer than last time - perhaps because of my clean corneal flap?   Anyway, before I suffer too much more, I'm done.  I'm given a few seconds to decompress from being all tensed up - my neck kills me from trying to hold my head rock steady - and then I sit up and get my goofy, Floridian Retiree sunglasses put on, and I stand and walk back out to the waiting room - SEEING all the way!

  • Not bad!  I get to sit in a nice leather recliner and just relax for a few minutes.  I ask the male assistant if my wife can sit with me - I'd like to let her know that I'm fine and there's no need to worry now.   She comes back and we talk about how it went.  After about 10 minutes, we're given some last minute instructions and off we got back to the house.  My next trick is pretty neat - as we pull into the driveway I mention that the lawn really needs to be mowed one last time before the winter sets in, but I can't because I need to avoid dusty conditions for a week or so.  The Wife takes the hint and offers to mow the lawn while I lay down (Doctor's orders!) for about 4 hours.  I put on some Led Zeppelin CDs, plug in my headphones, and drift off to dream about my new life, glasses-free.

• 9/13/01 - It certainly has been a busy summer, as evidenced by my inability to put much time into the upkeep of this website.  This summer saw The Kid perform another campaign in Little League.  He's 11 now, in the middle age group of the Triple A teams he plays with.  His maturity has helped him compete a bit more than his rookie year in Triple A.  Still some work to be done on his batting and throwing skills, but he's a pretty solid catcher and does a nice job in the outfield.  Still needs that 'eye of the tiger' aggressiveness that helps propel kids to local stardom, but since it doesn't bother him too much to be mid-pack, then I guess it shouldn't bother me either.

• The Wife and I were planning on returning to Europe this September and join a tour that was going to visit various citied in Germany, Austria, and Italy.   Unfortunately for us, the departure date was the now infamous September 11th.   We were very fortunate in that Usama bin Laden did not choose our flight, Northwestern Flight 1521 from Albany to Detroit, as an unwilling cruise missile for use on the World Trade Center.  Our itinerary was to be as follows:

  • 9-11-01    9:10a    Depart Albany International for Detroit Metro

  • 9-11-01    4:15p    Depart Detroit Metro for Munich via Amsterdam

  Our flight left the gate on time, and at that point we were unaware of the events that had occurred up to that point.  I'm not sure when exactly we boarded the plane but it was probably shortly before 9am.  The flight was lightly booked so it boarded rather quickly.  As we taxiied out to the runway, the captain came on the intercom to inform us that there was a delay caused by NY Air Traffic Control and that we may have to wait a bit before getting the go ahead to proceed.  Shortly thereafter, the captain came on the intercom once again to announce that a jet had reportedly crashed into the World Trade Center, and that NY Air Traffic Control had now shut down the air space over all of NY state.  The captain explained that we were going to pull over to the side of the runway and shut down an engine while we waited for an update.  As we parked, the flight attendant came on the intercom and said we were free to unbuckle our seatbelts and to use cell phones.  The flight attendant then began to walk up and down the aisle and help people make use of the swipe phones that are located in the seat backs. We had some older bumpkins behind us that were having problems using it.  The flight attendant was offering people the use of her personal cell phone since she had "a lot of minutes that I don't usually use up".  Within minutes, the captain came back on the intercom and announced that Air Traffic Control had shutdown all flights and that we would be going back to the gate to de-plane.  We stepped off the plane and walked back into the airport, noticing a growing crowd of people at the gate gathering around a TV monitor hanging from the ceiling.  As I walked up to see what was being reported, I watched in awe as what appeared to be a plane, I couldn't tell how big, crashed into the World Trade Center south tower.  At this point they were now reporting that it appeared to be a terrorist action, and everyone started to buzz from this announcement.  As The Wife and I talked amongst ourselves as to what to do next, an announcement came over the public address system stating that several airlines were going to make peoples baggage available for pick up since there were not going to be any flights out until at least 5pm that day.  As I scanned the crowd, I saw many people talking on cell phones, and one woman was hugging her teenage daughter and began to cry.   I had unfortunately made the decision to leave my cell phone at home, since I could not use it in Europe, and figured our window of need in the US would be short lived. I won't make that mistake again.  I still couldn't believe what I was seeing, and decided to try to find a pay phone to call The Wife's mom, who had just dropped us off 2 hours ago, to come pick us up.   The pay phones were jammed with people scrambling to make other arrangements, and I heard many snippets of conversation dealing with trying to get rental cars to continue their journeys.  Mild chaos ensued at the baggage claims, as normally 1 flight per carousel had given way to 3 flights per carousel.  People had begun to pick up on the enormity of what was going on, and I saw one girl with a video camera just standing in the middle of the baggage claim, panning the people and giving an oral  commentary of what was happening.  We found our bags shortly after we were given new instructions to proceed to a different carousel - this was the first time I had seen baggage handlers, complete with knee pads, standing in the crowd and trying to answer peoples questions.   As we walked outside, we saw many orange jacketed airport security personnel directing traffic and trying to keep cars moving along the drop off areas.  This didn't register as strange, but then I noticed uniformed policemen positione every 50-75 feet, their gaze constantly sweeping up and down the road in front of the airport.   Now I started to get a bit weirded out.  As we walked up to a less congested area of the drop-off area, we saw 2 local TV remote vans setting up shop in an auxillary parking lot.  Now I knew something of national import was taking place.    As we stood waiting, we watched as people would pull up to drop off people and luggage.  The airport security personnel would urge them to move on as soon as possible, but people were confused by the request, unaware of what horrors had happened in NYC just moments ago.  Passengers who had been turned away earllier from their flights (similar to us), would shout out to people that the airport was close until at least 5pm.  With that, almost everybody would just get back in the car and take off.   Why the security personnel weren't telling people this was beyond us.  The Wife's mom eventually picked us up, and told us she hadn't been aware of the events until she made a phone call to make reservations for a bowling banquet and was told by the person on the phone of what had just happened.  We got home and turned on the TV, and watched in shock and simple disbelief as the pictures showed commercial airliners slamming into the towers.  Our answering machine was blinking, and the message turned out to be from my very frightened sister, who had learned of the event from her husband who had been warned during his duties at the Naval Academy at Annapolis, MD.  We quickly called some co-workers, and family, to let them know we hadn't been involved in any incidents and that we were safe.  I then tried to call the Military Art Gallery, the business that sponsored our trip, to find out what was to come of our tour, but the phone lines were jammed for long distance calls.  We still haven't heard from the gallery as to what is to become of our tour fees, although the travel broker handling our trip claims that they will waive their cancellation policies and offer full refunds effective 9/12/01.  Don't know if that means that since our trip was to kick off on the 11th then we are screwed.  If we lose money, then I'm going after bin Laden personally.

• 5/21/01 - The Kid's Little League season has reached the halfway mark.  His team, Town N Country Lanes, is tied for first place in the National AAA.  He's been getting limited playing time this season due to some good talent on the team and his lack of batting skill, but he's been a contributor when in the game.  Playing mostly right field, he's made a few good catches.

• This past Sunday (5/20/01) I dragged The Wife out to the Mohawk-Hudson SCCA's SOLO II event at the old Griffis Air Force base in Rome, NY.  I had my choice between attending church and digging mulch beds or driving the 90 minutes out to Rome to watch cars run around at high speeds.  Hmm, which would I pick?  We made it out there by 10:45, just in time to see some of the cars starting out.  They had setup a course made up of orange pylons on one of the old runways.  The idea of SOLO II is to see how fast you can make your way through the course without nailing cones.  Cars are classified according to engine size, suspension setups, and manueverability.  We saw a full range of cars competing, from a rusty old Ford Ranger pickup (complete w/ rollbar and bush lamps), a Ford Lightning SVT pickup, several Honda Civics, a Honda Prelude, BMWs, Corvettes, Camaros, a Porsche, Subaru WRX (sedan and wagon), and some formula Ford cars.   The Wife wasn't too impressed by the formula Fords due to their lack of exhaust noise suppression, but they sure could burn through the course.   The times ranged from low 30's seconds for the formula cars to the high 50's for some cars that didn't quite have either the suspension or the driver nailed down.  Driver skill appeared to be a big factor in times - the POS Ford Ranger pickup beat half of the street cars there.  Drivers appeared to be mostly white males, 20's to 50's, with a few females mixed in for good measure.  The only car to spin out, twice, was the mustard yellow Porsche (a Boxster, I believe).  Serves him right for having such a nice car.   We spent a good 4 hours just watching the proceedings and the cars run.  We got to know some of the better cars/drivers, and who to watch for 'excitement'.  The bonus for the day came when I rec'd the directions to the competition - "take a right at the B-52 bomber".  Before we left the base, now known as the 'Griffis Industrial Park', I stopped at the bomber and took a quick peek around it.  The Wife only asked that I get her ice cream on the way back as compensation for the day.  Not a bad price to pay, considering.  Now I'm looking forward to the next Mo-Hud event, being held in my backyard on 6/3/01 at the State Office Campus parking lots.  Stay tuned.

• We're looking at taking a trip to Europe sometime this year.  It would be part of a tour, and would include Germany, Austria, and Italy.  More on this once the trip is over.  I'm also looking at participating in the  Super Street Magazine's sponsored tour to the Tokyo International Auto Show next year.  I've always wanted to go to Japan, and for what better  purpose than to view cars that'll never see the light of day on these shores?  Haven't really put this one to The Wife yet, so we'll see.

• 4/30/01 - Well, it has been awhile since I've updated this page.  Not because of lack of activity, but lack of spare time due to that activity.  At the end of February I travelled to Orlando for InfoSec World 2001.   The conference wasn't bad, and the weather was fantastic.  I traveled with a co-worker who shook me out of my normal routine (sit in the hotel and totally geek-out on conference materials and other Internet Security related items) and had me out and about on a nightly basis.  We did some of the Disney parks, and always spent the evenings cruising the strips looking for food and/or beer.  Later in the week The Wife and The Kid arrived to enjoy the surroundings.  The conference ended, and we had 2 days to enjoy ourselves.  We went the The ESPN Club for dinner one evening and while we waited to get in, realized that something big was happening inside.  Turned out that Grant Hill was on-stage taping some show, and was on crutches recovering from ankle or foot surgery.  The Kid seemed to be mildly impressed by this, but as The Wife and I watched the show, I realized The Kid was more consumed by the little baseball hand-held game they gave out than he was by Grant.  We ended up flying home just in front of the great Nor'easter storm that closed many airports  but only gave certain regions the promised amount of snow - the Albany area being one of the recipients of massive amounts of snow.  Thank goodness for snowblowers.

• Work has been extremely busy as we continue to move forward with bringing our Internet website in-house and add much functionality to it.  IBM has been a major hassle to deal with on some of their software products, and the products have so complicated and error prone as to force us to hire IBM consultants to come in and straighten out the mess.  As part of our attempts to deal with the situation, we decided it would be a good idea to attend official IBM training.  The original idea was to venture down to NYC on the Amtrak train and hit the class, but because we signed up so late, that class was full.  Our next choices were Chicago or Phoenix.   Phoenix obviously held the inside track for weather, but we figured it would be cheaper to travel to Chicago.  Boy, were we mistaken.  Tickets to Chicago were $1400 roundtrip from Albany, while Phoenix turned out to be an economicl $260.  Well, I've run out of time tonight so I'll finish this story soon....

• 2/12/01 - Recently took The Kid out to shop for some sneakers and clothing for him.  What an night that turned out to be.  We had much trouble finding sneakers that fit the 3 prerequisites: 1) fashionable for him, 2) cheap for us, 3) actually fit.  Most sneakers  that he liked simply didn't come in his size, or ones that did were outrageously expensive.  For example, the Nike Shox sneakers that are  being heavily advertised on TV ("boing"), are being heavily advertised in the sneaker retail displays as well - display shelves are set to make the "boing" noise when you pick the shoe up or put it down, large mock-ups of the 4 column shox setup on the sneaks hang from the ceilings and make "boing" noises every 20 seconds or so.  Try listening to "boing" for a few hours and you'll quickly start having hallucinations in the mall.  We ended up buying sneaks that were 1.5 sizes larger than what he wears now simply because we got tired of trying to find something in his current size.  After visiting at least 4 stores and having spent a good hour and a half looking, we then went to the local Old Navy to try on some pants.  The Kid is now into a size 14 waist but doesn't need that much length, so once again we need to be cautious when selecting sizes.  The Kid and The Wife got into a discussion about whether pants that were too large were just big or were to make you look like a "gangster rapper".  The Wife won out on that one and no large pants were purchased.  The Kid came out of the dressing room wearing his warm-up pants backwards - blaming it on his mom for "handing them to me backwards".  Typical of the arguments that surround his upbringing currently.

• Well, it looks like William Jefferson Clinton simply can't keep his moral failings under control long enough in order to slink off into history and hope that his legacy will grow to cover up his indiscretions.  Unfortunately for him, you must eventually "to your own self be true", and with the help of Hillary they have seen to it that their criminal behavior is once again put on display.  The pardoning of non-deserving scum in the last minutes of the Clinton's reign of shame points up Bill's inadequacies for being strong enough to hold the office of President.  Hillary and Bill's attempts to empty the White House of furniture and other souvenirs are   reminiscent of the poor schleps who happen to get to spend some time in a swanky hotel room, and once they realize that they're going to have to beat a trail back to their true social standing in Arkansas decide to grab as much soap, bath mats, and towels as possible.  What a class act they've been!  How thoughtful of them to honor the trust that their supporters and staff have placed with them over the years.  These incidents will be used to hammer the Democrats for years, and because of the Democrats' failures to hold the Clintons to the same standards that they would hold any other decent member of society, it'll cost them, and us, in the form of a ruling Republican party.   Perhaps the Republicans can somehow be tied to forcing poor Bill to push through the inexplicable pardon of Marc Rich?  The work of a great man - or the result of a heinous web of conspiracy?  Hardly.  Our lasting images of poor Bill will be of him with his pants down around his ankles, receiving oral sex while on the phone to legislators, selling the White House's sphere of influence to Chinese donors, and as a coup de grace accepting political blood money to allow criminals to avoid their crimes...   Hillary is going to have to work hard to top the stench of her husband's work, that's for sure.

• Eye laser surgery - it has become a common place surgery to have, at least in the greater Capital Region.  Our local paper is constantly full of ads from local and national practices offering this surgery.  You can even take an Amtrak train to Montreal and have the surgery performed there for about half the cost of most US-based offerings.  I had spoken with at least a dozen people at work who had the surgery and raved  about it.  No problems, no complications, just great eyesight.  After listening to their stories and getting constantly questioned about why I hadn't checked it out yet, I decided to do just that.  I went to 2 places for pre-op exams: TLC and LasikPlus.  Both are national firms and advertise heavily in this area.  Both also have pretty good reputations for having experienced surgeons on staff.  TLC has hired on Tiger Woods as a spokesman, having done his laser eye surgery.  After going through both exams,  both places told me I was an excellent candidate.  However, TLC offered the surgery at a staggering $1600 higher price tag than what LasikPlus did.  Another coworker who was investigating the procedure at the same time I was did a lot of homework and based her decision on price and referrals.  I decided to follow suit, and thus chose LasikPlus as well.  The week before I was scheduled to have the surgery, my coworker friend went through the process and emerged with flying colors and tales of the wonderful benefits of the surgery.   On Friday January 12th, I went in to have my eyes done.  However, some things went wrong right from the start.  The surgeon who was to perform the surgery did a quick examination of my eyes just before entering the surgery room, and told me that because of my level of astigmatism that he couldn't guarantee me that I'd end up w/ 20/20 vision.  My mind  raced as I thought about the possibility of having this surgery and yet still needing glasses.  It irked me that during my pre-op exams this was never mentioned.   It should also be pointed out that I had decided to take advantage of a federal tax plan through work and pay for the procedure using an FSA, or "Flexible Spending Account".  The way the plan works is that you designate how much money you'd like available to you for medical costs, and then this amount is withheld from your paycheck over the course of a year.  You then submit medical bill receipts to request reimbursement.  The money is collected as pre-tax, meaning that the higher the tax bracket you're in, the further your designated money goes.  For example, if your income tax rate is 28% and you would normally pay about $1000   dollars out of your pocket, above and beyond insurance coverage, for various medical expenses (co-pays, uncovered items, etc.), you could request that the $1000 dollars  be taken out as FSA money, and you would avoid paying the 28% income tax on it.  Otherwise, it would cost you $1280 to receive the $1000  in your pocket after paying federal taxes  via  withholding.  The big caveat here is that if you end up spending LESS than your designated amount, you don't get the underage back.    So by me designating the cost of the eye laser surgery in an FSA, is stood to save several hundred dollars, but only if I indeed have the surgery.   With this thought ringing in my head, I asked the surgeon just what could he assure me I'd get for vision results.  He claimed he could pretty much guarantee 20/40, which means you could be glasses-free most of the time, but would need them to see detail when driving, etc.  I thought about this for a second, and decided it was still worth it.   With that, we were off to the operating room..............Once in the operating room, I had a surgeon's cap placed on my head to keep hair out of the equation, and my eyelids were swabbed with Betadine.  I was then led to the operating table, where you lay down and place your head in a skull-shaped cradle.   This is to keep your head still while the surgeon works on your eyes.  2 pieces of tape were placed on the lower and upper eyelids to tape them open.  The surgeon then quickly discussed some things that were going to happen and what he needed me to do.  1) Eye speculum was to be placed in my left eye.  Don't fight it, just try to relax when it's in or even try to help it and open your eye wide.  Sounded simple, but it was very uncomfortable.   I must have visibly stiffened when this was inserted, and the surgeon asked me how I was doing.  I was concerned as to how much I felt it, having assumed that most everything would be numb at this point, and told him I was in a lot of discomfort.   The surgeon just told me to try to relax and ignore it.    Next   up, the surgeon was going to place a micro keratome in my left eye.  This device is responsible for making the corneal flap that Lasik eye surgery depends on.   The keratome is placed squarely over your pupil.  It  then creates a vacuum, sucking your eye up to the keratome's spherical surface.  A small scalpel then come out from the side of the keratome, at a 90 degree angle to your eyeball (as if you look at the palm of your hand while it's in front of your face, then move your palm right to left), and cuts through the front of your cornea, from the side, about 80 percent of the way through.  The resulting flap is then flipped out of the way, a laser is used to vaporize the exposed corneal tissue, and once the laser has finished (approximately 20-45 seconds per eye), the flap is flipped back into place, and heals (reattaches) within 2 hours.  It is supposedly fully attached within 24 hours, and becomes fully healed within a week.     Now, back to me.  The surgeon attaches the keratome to my eye, and tells me I should notice that my vision goes completely dark.  I do see that, and the surgeon says that's the vacuum being created.  The keratome then made a short sound and then it is pulled off my eye. However, the surgeon then begins a dialog with the assistant that I recognize as not being good.  I can tell from the terminology and the tone of the surgeon that things have not gone as planned, and my heart starts to race and I feel as if I'm in a bad dream.   The waiver form you sign for the surgery lists all types of nasty risks that can happen with this surgery, from corneal tears to corneal punctures.  The surgeon asks the assistant "Did the machinery show a good vacuum during the whole procedure?"   Assistant:  "Yes."   Surgeon:"What keratome did we use on Mrs. ------- ?".  Assistant: "The one we're using now."    Surgeon "If we had problems with this one before, why are we still using it?"   Assistant: "Because it's a new unit and our policy is to switch between the 2 keratomes with each surgery."     End of discussion, and the surgeon then asks the assistant for a "bandage contact".   At this point I'm frightened out of my mind, and start to try to control my heavy breathing as much as possible.  I then get the bravery up to ask the surgeon what's going on.  He tells me that I have a giant corneal scratch and that it's going to take at least 2 or 3 weeks for it to heal.  He then attempts to put a thin bandage contact on my eye, but has much difficulty in getting it to stay adhered to my eye - it keeps bunching up or folding over.  He then blames this on me, and says that I must be blinking "too hard".  I explain that I'm blinking as normally as I can.   The surgeon then goes on to say that I must have caused the keratome to lose vacuum because I "fought the speculum too much."   With this statement I feel like crap, knowing I've done my best to be as cooperative as possible for the surgeon, but apparently having failed.  After the 3rd attempt to put the contact in my eye, the surgeon becomes frustrated and tells everyone in the operating room that we need to move to another room to put the contact in and that all following procedures will need to be cancelled.  I figure my eye must be in bad shape if he needs to cancel all other appointments.  We go into an examination room and I'm asked to lean back in a chair so that the surgeon can attempt to insert the bandage contact again.  This time he asks for a more rigid Accuvue bandage lens, and after a momentary placement  problem, gets it in.  At this point the surgeon relaxes a little and starts to explain to me that instead of the keratome blade cutting my cornea, it has simply scraped across it, removing the corneal layer from the front of my eye.  This is exactly what's done in a PRK procedure - the cornea is removed from over the iris area, a laser is used to reshape the underlying corneal tissue, and then a lens is put in the eye for about a week while the cornea regenerates the missing covering.  The surgeon now suggests that I'm probably not a good Lasik candidate because of this problem (NOW YOU'RE GOING TO TELL ME THAT?) and that if I want, I can have PRK done on the affected  eye.  At this point I'm still trying to calm down, and am in  no shape to make a decision on this.   I hadn't researched this procedure and certainly wasn't aware of the risks of it, so I declined.  The surgeon's big words of encouragement to me on my way out?   "We'll give you a full refund for today".  I'm worried about my sight, and he's going to soothe me by pointing out that they're giving me a refund.    Dr. Mark Vera - you're a jerk!   I'm fine for the first 2 hours afterwards, but then all hell breaks loose.  I'm in complete agony, and literally shake with pain.  I'm chilled, and despite Tylenol and a comforter I just lie on a chair and shiver.  My eye waters copiously, and my sinuses quickly swell shut so that I have difficulty breathing..  My wife sees me coming out of the room and knows I'm not happy, but decides to wait until we're outside to ask what happened.  After I tell her what happened, she then tells me that she thinks "Mrs. ----- " was out in the waiting room being attended to while I was being botched.  So her keratome accident occurred just minutes  before mine.  Very interesting.  Bottomline - I'm scared to death of this procedure at this point, but am having $2400 deducted out of my paycheck to pay for it with no hope of being able to get it back.  So LasikPlus's "refund" did me no good.  My regular eye doctor has suggested I have a consultation with an eye surgeon at this point to see  what they would recommend.   According to my regular eye doctor, my cornea is very flat, and may have been the problem with getting the keratome a good fit for sucking up the eyeball.  Over the course of the last few weeks, I've had follow-up care visits done at LasikPlus to ensure that the eye is healing properly.  So far, it has, and my vision is completely normal.  I had a halo around lights at night for a week or 2, but that's gone now.   The last visit to LasikPlus of Albany yields this proclomation from the eye doctor that has done my follow-ups: "You can reschedule anytime".  He leads me out to the desk as he would to schedule my next follow-up, but tells the girls at the desk I'm ready to reschedule.  I tell them "Why don't I just call you when I'm ready".    That'll be about 20 minutes after I'm cold and dead.

• 1/9/01 - The Kid is now into YMCA basketball and is having fun.  This program isn't as structured as previous programs he's participated in, but that doesn't seem to matter to him.  Some kids need more coaching than is being given, but it hasn't stopped everyone from having fun.  The Kid has been on a winning team almost everytime he's played - coincidence?  Probably, but he does get his share of baskets.  His NFL lineman tendencies seem to be more obvious here, when he stops running the ball up the court and walks it up, but he's doing ok.

• We rec'd a new dishwasher tonight.  The dishwasher that came with the house was known not very affectionately around here as "The Noisemaker" - it made a lot of noise but didn't seem to do much in the way of washing dishes.  We had to scrub them so thoroughly before putting them in that it almost didn't make much sense to run it at all.  The Wife rationalized it as at least it sterilized the dishes - whatever...

• Enjoyed another quiet New Year's Eve w/ our friends Barry & Dana, and their daughter Katie.  We did the usual routine of eating something fattening every 20 minutes during the entire night.  Finished it all off with a bottle of champagne.  We had spent  a few days beforehand down at my folks and visited with them and my sister & her gang.  We returned in the middle of a Nor'easter snow storm, and just made it up to the top of the driveway.  By the time the storm was done we had 13" of snow on the ground.

• I go in on this Friday for laser eye surgery at LasikPLUS of Albany.   I originally scheduled an evaluation exam just to shut everyone up who continually asked me why I hadn't had the surgery done yet.  I figured I wouldn't be eligible for it due to bad astigmatism, dry eyes, whatever else could go wrong.  I was surprised and taken aback when I was told I was an excellent candidate for it, so I sort of just went through the motions and made an appointment, not really thinking too much about it.   Now the date has crept up on me and I'm getting nervous.  A co-worker of mine who was considering the surgery did a lot of the homework on the procedure and different places for me.   She got very nervous a week before her scheduled surgery and almost backed out, but her husband, who had already had it done, talked her out of it.   She's now finished with it and is happy to have gone through the procedure.  I keep clinging to that as my hope for having a similar experience.  Here's what they do - they map the contours of your eyes using an instrument that you simply put your face into and stare at a little red light.  Nothing touches your eye and it is very easy to do.  Once they map your eyes (one at a time), they then give you a few eye tests measuring what your corrective vision needs are and checking for glaucoma, etc.  They then numb your eyes and perform a measurement of the thickness of your cornea.   Because they are going to cut into your cornea, they want to make sure it is thick enough so that they can cut into it and yet not go all the way through it - otherwise your vitreous gel would come gushing out (nauseous yet?  I was).  The thickness is measure by placing some small rod on your eye - it sends some sort of vibration into your eye and detects the thickness of your cornea.  Since your eye is numb, you don't feel it, but you see a little vibration and blurring during the test - about 3 seconds.   Next they did a tear production test where they stuck little white strips of paper on my eyeballs and left them on for about 2 minutes.  I wasn't supposed to blink much or fast while they were on - try that with strips in your eyes.  My usually dry eyes did fine according to the technician, but I figured whose eyes AREN'T going to tear when they have relatively large objects in them?  Anyway, the day of the procedure goes like this - eat a light meal and dress in fabrics that don't produce much lint (you don't want lint to become airborne and become lodged under your corneal flap, do you?).   You arrive at the center, they hand you half a Valium tablet and give you some paperwork to sign - a release of liability, believe it or not.  It gets witnessed by the receptionist.  By the time your Valium starts to kick in, you get led into the operating room.  They have you lie on a table. You are then given several drops to completely numb  your eyes.  Speculums are placed in your eyes to keep the lids apart.  Your head is placed in an apparatus to keep it still.  A small cylinder that can create a small amount of vacuum pressure is placed on your eye and then creates a 'C' shaped cut of your cornea.  The flap that is created has its connecting tissue located toward the nasal side of your eye.  This flap is layed back, and then the surgeon aims a microscope laser at your eye.   Now you keep just staring at the red dot while the surgeon, having fed the eye map info into the laser, foot pedals the laser at your exposed cornea tissue.  The laser vaporizes the tissue and creates a surface that will perform the same kind of correction (hopefully) that your current eye glass lenses do.  This laser usage can last anywhere from 20-45 seconds for each eye.   Within 10 minutes of walking into the room, your corneal flaps are lowered back on your eyes, a steroidal drop and an antibiotic drop is placed in each eye.  They walk you to another room (you can see immediately, but it will look foggy in the room, like a haze of smoke). You stay for an hour to ensure there are no complications with your eyes, and then they put a large "Retired Floridian" set of wrap-around sunglasses on you.  You are to keep these on for the first 48 hours and to wear them to bed each night for a week to keep your eyes from getting hit during sleep.  I'll need them because our cat Crissy has a habit of coming up after I've gone to bed and then flopping down on my pillow, usually laying on my face and attempting to create enough room for herself by pushing my head off.  I'll go in for a follow-up visit the very next morning, and then continue using the steroidal and antibiotic drops 4 times a day for 2 weeks, and artificial tear drops for every 30 minutes or as often as I need them for up to 3 months.  Most people have an irritated feeling for a few days, but some have had it last for up to a month.  I'm hoping that won't be me.  If you see another update here, then you'll know it was successful!

• 12/2/00 - The Kid's soccer season came to a blessed ending.  Their team did respectable in the tournament, but they weren't good enough to make the trophy round.  We were very happy with that, as the temps that day were in the low 40's and the wind blew steady most of the day.  We stood outside and watched The Kid play somewhere in the neighborhood of 7 games - he was tired and we were tired (10am - 3pm).

• We had a very good Thanksgiving, w/ a good crowd showing up at the my wife's brother's house.  My folks were able to come up and spend the following day with us, which was nice.  Following some unknown inherited drive, they once again left before staying in our house for 24 hours.  Maybe the visa they're issued at the NY/PA border only allows 1 day visits......

• My basketball league came to an end.  I ended up missing the tournament game due to a flu shot reaction.  Because of my scheduled laser vision correction surgery (sometime in early Jan. 2001) I won't be able to sign up for the next session.  Sort of disappointed, but if I was smart I'd use that time to get on the Bowflex and pump up for hardwood combat.  Fat chance...

• Volleyball is still going, at least for a few more weeks.  We have become the unofficial 'bye week' for anyone we play - since we can't field a full team of 4 people, we have to beg or borrow someone from around the facility to join us, which makes us ineligible to win and thus forfeit the game.  Since I'm just there to polish my skillz for the OC Volleyball season, this doesn't matter too much to me.

• Last night (Friday 12/1) was our company Christmas party.  The Wife was't sure if she was going to be up to going, having been struggling with some sort of respiratory thing, and in the process of self-medicating, taken drugs which kept her up most of the nights this past week.  On the way to the party we stopped and remedied the situation by purchasing some Nyquil (approximately 70% alcohol by volume).  We had fun at the party, dealing with cold drafts by overriding the wishes of the staff and switching off the A/C, and visiting w/ friends we don't often see.  Out of a conversation at our table, I was shamed into updating this site.  Here you are, Dana...

• I continue to spend outrageous amounts of time and money on modifying my Honda Accord.  I keep having this feeling that eventually my wife will issue me some ultimatum where I have to enroll in the Betty Ford Automotive Aftermarket Recovery Clinic.   In the meantime, I love it.  The only downside is living in NYS, which means you can't work on the car during the winter unless you have a heated garage (don't) .   Plus, all that nasty melting ice and crap doesn't make for a nice floor surface to lay on.  But just because I can't install things now doesn't mean I can't purchase them, right?  You can follow my sickness at my website dedicated to the effort.

• My friend Susie D. & her husband Mike had a baby boy, Luke.   Both are doing well.  She sends me email giving me the scoop on all the funny things that are happening as a result of parenthood. 

• 10/12/00 - The Kid scored another goal, making his total either 2 or 3 (there seems to be some debate and fuzzy memory involved).  He still looks like an offensive lineman on a busted play out there, but he hustles and controls the ball pretty well.  I'm playing volleyball on Wednesday nights and basketball for the over-30 crowd on Thursday nights.  I've learned a few lessons so far: 1) wait a year before joining a brand new Y facility so they can work out the kinks in the structure and general organization of activities, 2) I'm old, 3) treachery doesn't make up for youth, 4) over-30 isn't much of a cushion.  The volleyball was supposed to be organized into 'recreational' and 'advanced' leagues, but the schedules were completely messed up, so that teams intended for both are playing in each other's league.   Makes for interesting games when you have 'A' level players playing against people who've never touched a volleyball in their life.  I'm on a scrap team, where those who didn't have a team already put together are put together.  The guy who was advanced decided to quit when he saw who he was teamed with, leaving me, a woman who hasn't played in 20 years, and a guy who had never played.  The rookie quit, but we did get another decent rec player assigned to us.  The next problem is that it takes 4 people to field a team, so we always have to beg or borrow a player for our games.  It is fun and I get much exercise out of it trying to make up for our team's lack of skills.

• 10/2/00 - The Kid's soccer team continues to do well, having had only 1 close game so far, and that one was close because the coach ordered the kids to make sure it was close.  Several kids play 'travel soccer', and it certainly shows in their abilities.  Unfortunately, our coach, who seems like a nice guy, doesn't do much coaching.  This works out fine for the travel soccer kids, but the others who still need the finer points of the game pointed out to them are left to work things out on their own.  They all seem to have a good time, and winning certainly plays its share in that.

• A busy weekend this past weekend, w/ my bro-in-law having his second bachelor party - it's his second marriage.  Because The Kid had a Little League placement exercise on Saturday, I had to skip out from the party after only an hour and show up to support The Kid.  From what I hear, sounds like I left just in time, w/ the best man eventually drinking himself into a stupor and regurgitating all over the groom's (and fiance's) house.  Not a good sign for what will take place at the wedding!

• It doesn't look good for The Kid to continue in his French Horn lessons.   He hates it, and cries and complains about practicing any time it's brought up.   Reminds me of a kid who hated his piano lessons in a similar fashion - me.   I'm just about ready to let him off the hook, but not sure what The Wife will have to say about that.

• 9/25/00 - I continue to pour money, time, and other resources into my Accord Project car and website.  Stop by and check it out.

• 9/24/00 - The Wife successfully hosted a bridal shower for her new future sister-in-law, Jen.  We had about 18 people show up for it.   I ended up dodging the rampant estrogen by taking The Kid to his 2pm soccer game.   His team put on an offensive show, whacking the other team 6-2, despite trying to not score goals in the last quarter (heck, when the goal is there, what are  you going to do with the ball?).  The day before was The Kid's sports washout, with both soccer practice cancelled and Little League placement exercises cancelled - both for no good reason.

• 9/16/00 - Spent the entire day at the OC Ski Club volleyball tournament at the Altamont Fairgrounds, Altamont NY.  I arrived around 8am, with volleyball beginning at 9am.  We played 12 games, making it out of our bracket as the 2nd seed team.  We won our first playoff game, but lost in the semifinals to the 1st seed team from our beginning bracket.  One of the weirdest weather days for volleyball, with gusty wind most of the day.  The sun shone brightly, though, so I was both windburned and sunburned.  As soon as the sun began to fall the temperatures dropped quick.  As the semifinal loser, we had to stick around and provide refs for the championship game.  We shivered as the teams that played put on quite a show, taking forever to win volleys and put points up.   Agonizingly slow, the crowd favorite (not the team we lost to) won and allowed everyone to either go home or go find beer and food.  I made it home and promptly curled up on the bed around 9pm, exhausted, cold, and sore all over.  Of course I had to wake up early the next day, Sunday, for the annual work golf scramble.  It took 2 Tylenol gel caps just to get me out of bed to shave.  Once I got to the golf course and hit a bucket of balls, the Tylenol had kicked in nicely and I was pretty loose for the rest of the day.  Another exhausting weekend, brought to a close where I turned right around from the house and went to watch The Kid's soccer game.  His team has some great players, and they once again won, 3-2.

• 9/4/00 - Recently returned from our vacation in Williamsburg, VA.  We stayed in a Best Western just on the edge of Colonial Williamsburg (The Patrick Henry Inn).   While it was rated a 3 diamond motel by AAA, we weren't impressed and probably would put it in the 2 diamond category.  Our room was ok, but the wall was deteriorating near the AC unit, the advertised 'arcade' turned out to be 3 old video games (1 broken, and 1 too violent for The Kid) and a pinball game.  The bullets below detail our vacation experience.

• We flew down Sunday (8/27) morning to BWI in Baltimore, rented a car (rec'd a free upgrade to a Pontiac Grand Prix), and sped for 3 hours down to Williamsburg using maps from Yahoo!.  The Yahoo! map was pretty accurate until the very end, telling us to take 2 rights when we needed to take 2 lefts - we were close enough to the motel that we found it.  Decided to walk around Colonial Williamsburg and get oriented to the area.  We ate a meal at the Chowning Tavern, decorated and staffed w/ 18th century themes.  The food was ok, but the bill was a bit high - about 3 times what we paid for any other evening meal the rest of the stay.  As we finished up our meal,  a thunderstorm rolled in and began a deluge.  We waited for about 15 minutes, but it didn't seem to be letting up.  Since we were only about a half mile from the motel we decided to make a run for it.  The Wife, The Kid, and I all made a mad dash.  Boy did our poor conditioning show through - or maybe it was trying to run right after a meal, but we stopped running about 200 yards into the adventure.   Luckily the lightning slowed down, but the rain was pretty steady.  By the time we made it to the motel we were pretty wet.  The AC unit was also a heater, so we put our shoes on it and turned on the heat to dry them out.

• Monday (8/28) we headed out to Busch Gardens for some fun.  The weather was hazy with a lot of humidity, but it wasn't too bad.   I spent most of my time trying to talk The Kid into riding the rollercoasters with me.  There are 4 - The Alpengeist in the German section, the Big Bad Wolf in the German section, The Loch Ness Monster in the Scottish section, and Appollo's Chariot in the Italian section.  It took much badgering and negotiating but finally The Kid agreed to ride on The Alpengeist.  We came off of it, and he couldn't stop talking about it - he loved it.  You rode in a seat with a shoulder harness over you, hanging from a rail with your feet dangling free.  I decided to reward The Kid's effort with an Alpengeist t-shirt.  The one he liked the best says on the front "Sit down, shut up, and hang on", with "Alpengeist" on the back.  We then wandered around looking at other rides and attractions.  They have a lot of shops on the grounds, but everything is way overpriced so we avoided them after the first few.   The Kid decided he wanted to go on a ride where you get wet, so we went on some water pflumes.  Oddly enough, we had a lot of trouble talking The Kid into riding any more roller coasters that day.  He finally agreed to ride the Loch Ness Monster only when we told him that he'd have to wait for us while we rode it.  He didn't like it after it was over, but still asked for a t-shirt to commemorate his bravery.  I told him riding at gunpoint didn't warrant t-shirt awards.    We decided to eat lunch at Oktoberfest in the Fest Hall.  This is a great big recreation of a beer tent, complete with a stage in the middle for oompah bands.  There were no bands that day, but they had recorded music going.  We wolfed down some food and headed back out.  In Italy, The Kid discovered a ride called "The Tradewinds", which I've seen at regular carnivals before.  It basically is a small circle of cars that go in a circle and ride on a fixed track that has some ups and downs on it.  The Kid loved this ride, with me egging him on by pretending to be squished by him when the centrifugal force took over and he couldn't stay on his side of the bench seat any more.   After 2 rides on this thing, I tagged The Wife and she took over for 3 more rides.   We finally dragged him off of it after he went a few times more by himself.   We then took another water ride called "Roman Rapids".  This ride consisted of a large round boat that could hold 6 people that floats down some rapids, with some unexpected waterfalls and squirts here and there.  I'd ridden something very similar years ago at Great Adventure in NJ, and remembered the best part of it, besides getting soaked, is watching people who don't want to get soaked - get soaked.   The Wife decided to stay on land and keep our backpack dry while The Kid and I braved the rapids.  We were lucky enough to get in a boat with 2 girls who weren't all that crazy about getting wet.  As luck would have it, my side of the boat went under a waterfall that is on one side of the ride, but the boat spun in time so that the following 2 waterfalls hit the two women on our boat.   They screamed and we laughed.  The Kid was sort of disappointed that he didn't get soaked, but still found joy in the women's misery.  We spent 7 hours at the park and headed home around 5:30 in order to beat the closing traffic at 6.  Not sure when the busy season is for Williamsburg, but it turned out that we had missed it.  It was great that there were virtually no lines anywhere when we went on rides, or did other things in the Williamsburg area.  However, the Busch Gardens closed at 6 instead of 8pm, so we had less time to use our tickets.

• Tuesday (8/29) we decided to go to Water Country, USA - a Busch amusement.  The day was supposed to be cloudy with a chance of rain, so we decided to do something where we'd be wet anyway.  The weather helped keep the crowds down, but there were still a good amount of people there.  Once again, we were at the park at 10am and were in the water by 10:30am.  The water was cool, but it wasn't uncomfortable.  We tried the Jet Screamer first; an easy ride that sends you down a series of turns in a 1 person tube.  We then decided to go and explore the other rides.  Next up was the Nitro Racer, a giant slide where you lay on your stomach on a blue mat and hang on for dear life.  The 'big kids' go faster and farther, so I took the first race from The Wife and The Kid.  Next we headed to the Aquazoid - a family ride that takes you through tunnels with waterfalls, lights, and sounds.  The website really talked it up, so I wanted to see what the hype was.   We got into our 4 person raft and headed down the tunnel.  Unfortunately for me, gravity likes the heaviest person, so the tube ended up turning so that I was at the front of it - meaning that I am experiencing the ride backwards - while we plunge thru twists and turns.  I scream and hang on for dear life.  At the end I shared with my family that I didn't see any lights or hear any sounds.  They saw them, but I guess I was too busy yelling and closing my eyes.  We wandered around to some other rides - Big Daddy Falls, Malibu Pipeline, etc., but they were sort of lame - requiring operators to come down and push you along at certain parts in order to keep you going.   Seemed to me that they weren't designed properly to keep the water flowing fast enough to push along the rafts.  We finally came upon something called the Wild Thang.  This was a great ride.  You took a pink 2 person raft and could either ride solo or with another person, and then went thru a fast series of tunnels and turns before ending up in a  splash pool.  I went solo while The Wife and Kid rode together.  We all enjoyed it immensely, so it was back to the beginning again.   We must have ridden about a dozen times in a row in different configurations.   This was possible because there were virtually no lines and no waiting.   However, you were constantly marching up steps in order to get to the high starts of the rides - no resting in lines.  Around 1pm we were exhausted so we went and got lunch.  It felt really odd going into the food place dripping wet and standing in line, but that's pretty much how everyone else did it too.  I was envious of those people who had grandparents standing around holding their towels and money - we had to rent a locker in the middle of the park, so it wasn't very convenient to carry around a towel.  After lunch we once again went on other rides.  The Kid wanted to experience Lemon Drop and Peppermint Twist - some slides where you shoot down raftless into a pool.  My out was no glasses allowed (I wore my glasses with a headband all day, including a t-shirt and my trunks).  The Kid flung himself down these a few times - braver than I was - and then we decided to take a run in the Rambling River, which surrounds the slides.  This ride is for the calmer people who just want to float on a tube.  We went in floated, but then it started to rain.  We decided that there wasn't any sense in getting out since we were already wet, so we just kept floating.   However, the rain was cold, so I was looking for some relief from it.  Turned out that some of the tubes had bottoms in them, so we each grabbed a tube with a bottom and held it over our heads.  One of the poor lifeguards that surrounded the pool looked cold, so we grabbed a tube with a bottom and tossed it up to him.  He was very appreciative, but still shivered.  We went up and checked out the giant wave pool - a pool where 4ft waves occur for 8 minute periods between periods of 8 minutes of calm.   The water was very warm, so I decided this would be a good place to end our day - warm up after all the other rides, and not a good place to be now or all the other rides would seem very cold.  By 4:30pm we were getting really tired, except for The Kid, who just kept going like the Energizer Bunny.  I suggested that now was the time for the wave pool.  We went in and it felt good at first, but then we realized it was tiring to keep fighting the waves.  There were signs around suggesting people wear float vests provided by the park in order to make it easier to swim in the waves.  I figured I would trade my pride for the warmth that the vest would provide (plus the buoyancy), so I donned a vest.  The Wife did too, but The Kid wanted nothing to do with one.  At 5pm The Wife finally went to get changed, and I stayed in the pool with The Kid.  When she came back, we got out and went to the men's locker room to change.   The park was virtually empty at this point, so I know we got our money's worth that day.  We were totally exhausted and in need of a hot meal, so we hunted down a Cracker Barrel restaurant in Williamsburg.  We'd never been so it seemed like a good idea.  The food sure hit the spot.  We went back to the hotel and once again turned on the heat - both for ourselves and for our suits to dry.

• Wednesday (8/30) we designated as Colonial Williamsburg day.   However, we got a late start and missed some of the events we wanted to see.   They have different re-enactments and programs occurring throughout the day at various locations, so you need to schedule your day carefully using their weekly newspaper in order to make sure you hit everything of interest.  Tickets were pricey ($30/adult, $18/kid) so you needed to maximize your time.  The Kid was less than enthusiastic about this visit, and put up some stinks about various things being 'boring' and what-not.  We attended a portrayal of Lord and Lady Dunmore discussing the effect of their children leaving town after the morning's demonstration/riot (one of the events I wanted to see but missed).  Both actors were pretty convincing, with Lady Dunmore being played by a Gwyneth Paltrow look-a-like.  You were encouraged to interact with the characters, which I must confess was pretty initimidating.  For one, they spoke in old English, so it was sometimes difficult to understand the entire meaning of their speeches.  For another, I wasn't exactly a scholar on this part of colonial history and didn't want to say something stupid, either.  Our meeting with Lord Dunmore turned up no one of the 20 people who were in the room with him who had anything to say to him, so I wanted to try to get some interaction going in the next meeting with Lady Dunmore.  I figured "I lived near Scranton, which has a town near it called Dunmore" wouldn't cut it, so I listened intently to Lady Dunmore's monologue and tried to catch all the details  in order to come up with some intelligent questions.   I figured the Lady wanted her kids to leave because she felt they were in danger from local mobs (anti-royalty sentiments) but the Lord, who was governor of Virginia, didn't want them to leave because of how it would look to the people.  I asked her if there were political ramifications to her leaving and if she had considered them.   She jumped right on this and said she understood them but didn't feel her kids should bear the results.  Others in the group then got the courage to give her words of encouragement, telling her that she'd be safe in town.  It was one of those things where the more you put into it, the more interesting it became.  Soon our time was up, and the next group got to meet with them.  We then headed to a militia demonstration.  The Kid had been a good sport during the Lord and Lady Dunmore talk, so I figured he'd get a kick out of the militia demo.  Sure enough, there was an ornery Sergeant who asked us to be volunteers in the people's militia.  He gave us demos of how to load and fire a musket.  He also showed us how to carry our weapons.   We then lined up and he inspected us, yelling at us for being such poor specimens.   The adults were in the back row, the 10-15 year olds were in the middle line, and the young kids were in the front line.  The Sarge yelled at the back line to suck in their guts.  We then were given sticks to use as muskets, and we practiced loading them and firing them as a group.  We then went through bayonet practice, yelling "Hoo-zaahh!!" as we did our thrusts.  It was pretty fun, and the kid enjoyed it.  We then bombed around from place to place looking for interesting things.  We stopped in a shack and listened to a free slave discuss his day and some of the events that were going on.  We saw some local theater and heard some history of how colonial audiences were expected to act - hint, modern day audiences are considered genteel by colonial standards.  The Kid decided to complain most of the day that he itched from a rash on his chin and cheeks, but refused to put anything on it.  The Wife went on a tour of the governor's palace while The Kid and I sat outside and checked out caterpillars on some leaves on a tree that had huge string bean-like things hanging from it.  We watched some colonial kids play what looked similar to cricket.   The Wife eventually emerged from the tour, and The Kid and I, sufficiently armed with root beers and cider, went to see another attraction.  We came upon a family event where they were playing kid games of the day - rolling hoops and playing a baseball-like game where you place a ball on a catapult/teeter-totter thing, hit the one end with a paddle, then when the ball jumped into the air you hit the ball with the paddle.  The other kids were positioned about 20 feet in front of the batter in a semi circle, and who ever got the ball had to try and roll it from the spot where they   found the ball and hit the base of the catapult.  If you hit the base, you became the batsman, otherwise the batter went again.  If you caught the ball in the air, you were the new batsman.  The Kid wanted to spend the rest of the day there, and we finally had to leave before he came running out to follow.  He continued to beg us the rest of the day to go back.  We walked into the shopping area, after having visited the colonial church, and stopped at a drug store, where I got some Ivy-dry for my now full-fledged poison ivy outbreak on my right forearm, and some ice cream for the non-lactose-intolerant  among us.  We then headed back for the big end-of-day event, the trial and burning of the Lord North effigy.  We're still not quite sure who Lord North is, but apparently the townsfolk believed it was he who was calling the shots and ordering Lord Dunmore to remove the gunpowder from the Williamsburg armory (the event that caused the townsfolk to riot that morning, and to cause Lady Dunmore much distress when they assembled on the palace's lawn and frightened her kids).   The Kid loved this event, and I did too.  They read a proclamation from Lord Dunmore explaining why the powder was removed, and the actors and the audience got to boo and hiss at the reasons.  We also shouted out threats to the crown and generally acted as a mob.  They finally decided to try Lord North and marched in an effigy of him.  The effigy was animated by a colonial who held the effigy and answered as him, objecting to various charges during the mock trial.  It was very humorous and The Kid got into it.  We then marched Lord North through the streets and shouted "Liberty or Death" - quite exciting.  We ended up in a field just outside the palace, where the Lord North effigy was shot and then burned at the stake.  How's that for history, kids?

• Thursday (8/31) we headed back for our last day of our 3 day pass to Busch Gardens.  I had noticed a show the first time we were there, but The Kid didn't want to see it so we bypassed it.  This time I insisted we go in, and The Kid relented.  It's called "Pirates in 4d" and stars Leslie Nielsen and Eric Idle.  While I asked the staff member where to wait for the noon show, I heard a voice that sounded vaguely familiar behind me.  I looked and thought the person looked and sounded like my sister's father-in-law, but the rest of the people with him didn't look familiar so I dismissed it.  Once we were in the theater, I saw the same people wearing "Lighthouse Keepers" t-shirts, and remembered my sister telling me that her in-laws' relatives had been lighthouse keepers a long time ago.  Figuring this was too much of a coincidence, I went down and asked them their name.  Sure enough, it was my sister's in-laws with their foster kids.  We talked for a good 10 minutes and marveled and having run into each other this way.  The show was about to start, so I excused myself to go find my seat.  They mentioned that they would eat lunch at the Fest Hall and that they might see us there.  We exited after the show (it was really entertaining - The Kid loved it!) but didn't see the in-laws after that.    The weather didn't cooperate fully and we were caught in a downpour after an hour of rides.  The Wife bought me a poncho, but the kid wanted to be wet, so we just let him walk around in the rain.  We finally decided to go for lunch to the Fest Hall around 3pm.  I figured that the in-laws would have eaten much sooner because of the kids with them, so I didn't bother looking around for them.  As we headed into the crowd to look for a seat, The Kid and I both saw a spot that was open and decided to head for it.  Wouldn't you know that as we sit down, there next to us is the in-laws again.  We talked for awhile about their vacation in Pigeon Forge, TN and how Dollywood was so much nicer than Busch Gardens.  They said they would be going on the boat ride and the bumper cars later.  As we finished eating, the AC was making us wet ones very chilly, so we said we needed to get going and get out in the sun while it was there.  Their foster kid, the boy, was so cute, saying as we left "Can you wait until we leave?".  We really did need to get going, so we headed out.  The Kid seemed to want to make sure we ran into them again, as he picked the bumper cars and the boat ride as the next attractions to visit.  Unfortunately we didn't see them the rest of the day.  Near 5pm it started to look like rain again, and as we had dried out a bit, we didn't want to get wet again, so we headed for the exits.

• Friday (9/1) we drove out early and headed for my sister's house in Baltimore.  The rental car, because it wasn't full when we picked it up, was supposed to be returned empty in order to save us some money.  However, this proved to be difficult to do when driving 3 hours.  After the empty light came on for 20 minutes I decided the last thing we needed was to run out of gas on I-95 outside of DC, so we took an exit and hit a gas station, stopping for McD's too.  We hit my sister's house around 12:30, but no one was home.  We tried to get in both the front and the back, but found no open doors and no keys under the mats (Baltimore is a bit different than the digs around here, although we don't leave our doors open either, come to think about it.).   We sat outside for a few minutes, but the mosquitoes were wretched, so we retreated to the rental car.  Shortly thereafter my sister showed up and let us in.  Many thanks to my sister for letting The Wife do laundry at her house so that The Kid could be sent to his father's with clean clothing (although she discovered that The Kid used only 3 of his 8 clean underwears during the trip).  The Kid played with his cousins while we took a tour of the progressing renovations on their house.  We visited for a few hours and had supper there, before we went to the rental car place to return the car and catch the shuttle to the airport.  Our flight ended up getting delayed for about an hour, but luckily The Kid had his GameBoy with him and he played that to keep himself out of trouble.  We ended up getting into Albany around 10pm (The Kid fell asleep just as his soda showed up, so I had to down it just before the landing).  We made a call to the mother-in-law to come pick us up, but she was good and called the airport to find out when our plane was expected and was already on her way.  We picked up our luggage, went outside to wait, and she showed up within 2 minutes of our getting outside.   Can't beat that.

• 7/29/00 - The New York Giants football team is in town once again for training camp.  I've never really been a Giants fan, but I am a huge NFL fan, so it has been great to be able to get close to a team, even if it is the Giants.  In fact, I'm now so familiar with the players on the team that I take an interest in them and probably know more about them than my favorite Philadelphia Eagles.  This year has brought the excitement of watching what current Heisman Trophy winner Ron Dayne can do on the field.  He's had flashes of brilliance, but it's always difficult to tell whether he's doing great or if the Giants' defense is making mistakes.  Jason Sehorn is another crowd favorite, and people yell out to him from the fringe.  The Wife and I went over Friday to watch their afternoon practice, and I always take my binoculars in order to see all the detailed action on the field.  I noticed a hot babe on the sidelines - turned out it was Jason Sehorn's fiancée, Angie Harmon, with several security and police guys surrounding her.  Now if I didn't have the binoculars, you wouldn't be able to see several of the other players giving her the once over whenever they thought she wasn't looking.  It's that kind of stuff that helps you enjoy the games several months later.  For example, one of the defensive line guys was staring at her, so when he blows a tackle, you can jump up and yell at the TV, "If you had paid attention during camp and not stared at Sehorn's woman then you might have made that play, moron!!".  The Kid got to attend their first intra-squad scrimmage today with the neighbors and their son.  Unfortunately for them, it rained lightly almost the whole time and got sunny just after the game ended.   The Kid didn't seem too impressed with it.  His take - "the offense had the ball the whole time and never gave the other guys a chance!"   Of course, I didn't try to explain to him that the offense is the ONLY team that ever has the ball, except for a turnover, and that the only 2 offenses during the game are the first and second team offense.  They play against the first and second team defense (1 Vs 2, and 2 Vs 1).  Depending on how they colored the squads - they typically have all the offensive players in white, the defensive players in blue, and the quarter backs in red - it might appear that the same team had the ball the whole time.  The bigger hit of the night was getting to go to Chinese Buffet with them afterwards.  The neighbor kid told me that The Kid downed 3 bowls of ice cream.  I believe him.

• 7/14/00 - The Wife, The Kid, and I travel to the suburbs of Boston and visit our friends, the Jones'.   We had a great time with them, getting to know their two little ones, Brad and Derek.  The Kid took to the kids real well (he's a pro with little ones), and played with them most of the time.  This was good except for the fact that The Kid was into his second bout with a conjunctivitis episode.  It traveled from the one eye to the other.  I was hoping that the other kids didn't pick it up.  That Saturday we went into Boston and went to the Tall Ships festival.   So did 2,000,000 other visitors that day!!!  It was crowded, but people were distributed amongst 5 venues.  We gave up right away at attempting to visit the USS John F Kennedy - the line on Friday had been 1.5 miles long.  In order to try to quench demand, the Navy extended visiting hours by 1 hour.  People started lining up for the ship at 6am on Saturday - and it didn't open for visitation until around 10am.   I guess people could just pee into the harbor if they really had to go....  We opted for some of the lesser-known ships at the Black Falcon pier.  We wandered up and down the pier once to get a feel for what ships were there.  There were ships from Japan, Indonesia, Russia, Poland, Turkey, and other countries I can't remember.   We decided to get in line for the Kaiwo Maru, a Japanese ship.   The line was pretty good size and the ship was still a half hour from beginning boarding, so we settled in for a wait.  The gentleman we got behind immediately started to talk to my friend's wife about her bag, and also helped us out by pointing out that as we tried to arrange a time to meet up later that the ship didn't begin boarding for a half hour.  He was a bit nosy, but friendly enough.  He had 2 girls, about 12 or 13 in age, and a boy about 9 or 10 with him.  We looked out at the harbor and watched the constant parade of tourist boats that were streaming in single file up and down to view the ships that were docked there.  After awhile, the man ahead of us decided to take his boy somewhere and get him some food, so he left the 2 girls alone.   A few minutes later I notice this guy, about 30-something, 5' 6'', skinny, wearing a yellow t-shirt and pants, sandals, come up near the girls and just STARE at them for long moments of time.  This seemed really odd to me, but the girls didn't seem to notice or care at first.  I decided to keep an eye on this fellow.  He passed in front of them and then stood on the land side of them for a bit.  One of the girls decided to sit down on the ground, and this guy squatted down next to her and just kind of looked around and stared at her for moments.  This was really odd, so I began to just watch this guy all the time - I had sun glasses on so I could do it w/o much notice.   He then stood back up and was obviously at this point just kind of hanging around in line w/ the girls and us.  He spoke to one of the girls, something about the time, and she checked her watch and told him what time it was.  He said something to her about 'not much longer before it opens', and that was about it.  He then moved back over to the water side of the line and now positioned himself just in front of us.   There wasn't much room, so he was pretty close to us.  The Wife turns to me and mutters under her breathe "Is this guy cutting in line?", and I told her that I wasn't sure if he was with these girls or if he was up to no good.  Either way, I was going to watch him.  At this point the guy tried to chat me up by saying "It won't take this line long to move once it starts", and did my darndest to show that I wasn't in the mood to be friendly, so I said "Hmmm" and shook my head.  He moved a bit to our left, nearer the water, and I noticed that the girls were now eyeing this guy and mumbling stuff between them.  It now became apparent that these girls didn't know this guy and were also starting to wonder about him.   Shortly thereafter the father and the boy come back, and the girls begin talking to the father about this guy.  I immediately stepped in and said "Do you know this guy?" while pointing right at the short weirdo.  The father tells me "no", so I turn to Shorty Strange and say "I think you better find your place in line now".  He gives me a surprised look like 'who, me?'.  I start to get agitated at this point so I say rather loudly "We've been in line here for almost an hour and I know who was here - we were behind this family.  You better find your place back there or there'll be trouble."  He took off, and the father thanked me profusely for helping out.  I figured this family wasn't going to have a good time w/ Mr. Weird touring behind them anyway, and besides, he didn't look like he was armed or had a fighting chance against someone my size, so I told him to get lost.   We then got on the boat shortly thereafter and looked around.  There were plenty of young Japanese sailors on board who were eager to use their English catchphrases - "Hello", "Welcome", "Thank you".  A member of the Boston Police department was onboard - not in uniform, he probably was some sort of support staff - and tried to get the crew to trade him things for Boston Police patches.   One sailor gave him a pin of some sort, and I had to laugh when another sailor just took the patch and said "Thank you" with nothing in return.  They guy also tried to get some of the sailors to trade hats, but they didn't want to - and having looked at the hat and the man's head, I can't blame them.     The Kid's big catch of the day was to visit the souvenir tent and pick up a t-shirt that says "You Are What You Eat" - and has a picture of a baseball with a fork in it.   This is the same kid who whined about not wanting to play ball this spring.   Nothing will bring back the glorious memories of those majestic tall ships like a baseball with a fork in it, don't you think?   We continued our stroll down the pier and saw in the distance two magnificent guided missile cruisers of the US Navy.   Now it was my turn to make a wish, so we got into line for the ships.  This line was quite long, and our friends wanted to continue on w/ their little ones, so we made arrangements to meet in - after sizing up the line and how fast it was moving - 2 hours.  We stood in line forever, with the line moving about 3 feet or so every 2 minutes.  People in front of us were Japanese, the people 2 places behind us were Polish.  Every once in awhile a sailor from the ship would come along and answer any questions about them.  We had some annoying family behind us with a know-it-all kid who would totally command the attention of any of the passing sailors near us with requests for pictures of him and the sailor, and to ask if he was the captain.  We did get to meet the 2nd in command, and we were able to ask some questions of our own (my contribution was "What do you call the anti-aircraft missile defense on these ships?" - I thought it was 'Phalanx', a wonderful R2D2-like contraption with an intimidating Gattling gun staring out of it.   I was right, and the sailor told us it fired 3,000 rounds a minute.  The Wife and I did some almost fast math and came up with - 50 bullets a second!  Boy I could use that on my Accord for some well-timed road rage now and then....).  We eventually made it to very near the front of the line, where the Navy was selling hats for the 2 ships - USS Vicksburg and USS Hue City.  The annoying family of course had to throw yet another monkey wrench into things - they wanted to buy a hat, but the father insisted that the hat had to be of the ship that they would end up touring.  A sailor had come through the line earlier and explained that in order to keep things moving that people would be taken to either ship for a tour, and since they were  sister ships they were identical, so you would have no choice.  So now Mr. Annoying was going to insist that his kid tour the Vicksburg because that was the only hat they had left, and the family had to purchase the hats before they got on because they weren't sure there would be any left.   The Wife complained about the loud music that was throbbing from the area, and I noticed that the USS Hue City, nearest the dock, had Peavey speakers blaring various hard rock anthems.  I told her that this was just a way to show that every day is a party when you're in the Navy, at least that's what they wanted eligible 18-23 year olds to believe.  Just as we were to get on the ship, a large contingent of black people suddenly appeared and got into line ahead of us a few people up.  Next thing I hear some woman is calling for the MP at the catwalk (Army MPs were all over providing crowd control) to remove these interlopers.  Of course there were some legitimate folks in line who were black, so I could see this poor white MP trying to figure out how to sort this one out without the Reverend Al Sharpton organizing a protest at Fort Meade in a few weeks.  He tossed about 5 people out of line and the woman was happy.  We zipped up the ramp and began our tour of the USS Hue City.  We had 2 very nice sailors, a woman and a man, escort us up to the helicopter landing deck at the back of the ship for the beginning of our tour.  The lady announced that President Clinton had stepped on this very flight deck to view the Tall Ships when they were NYC.  A guy in our group piped up "That's probably because you have a lot of ladies on board".  Slightly embarrassed and taken aback, the sailor said that actually it was because the Hue City had won a commendation for 'Best of the Best', and that after all if the President was looking for a lot of ladies, he'd have chosen the USS JFK, with a crew of nearly 5,000!  They guy chimes in "Well then you must have the best looking ladies in the Navy".  She just smiled and went on with her speech.  We walked through the helicopter hanger, where some sailors were working out (it doubles as their gym), and we went up by the Phalanx systems, missile systems, and chaff anti-missile defense systems.  It was a bit spooky reading all the warnings on the items there - telling you you were in a radiation danger area (radar from weapons), toxic emission area (missile exhaust), and noise and projectile dangers (chaff launchers and those beautiful Phalanx towers).  We toured the bridge, learned that only the captain can sit in the captain's chair (but President Clinton was allowed to), and headed down to the war room.  This place was really impressive to me because of all the computer equipment.  It was equally exciting to see Microsoft Windows NT logon screens on several monitors (I had read an article in Computerworld that the Navy was going to use NT on missile cruisers, and we had made several jokes about re-booting in the middle of a battle and dealing with blue screens when things were going hot and heavy).  At the Vanguard Security Expo, Bill Murray, a recognized national expert in secure computing issues, had stated during a presentation that he would leave the country if the military ever began to rely on Microsoft technology for anything of a strategic nature.  I pointed out that Computerworld had reported that this had already happened.  The female sailor stated that she could answer general questions about the war room, but that her fellow sailor on the tour actually worked there and that he could answer questions.  I turned to him and asked him if they really were using NT.  "Yes, sir".  How do you like it?  "It's good" was his answer, but in hindsight, would he have told me any different even if it wasn't good?  Probably not.    We finally ended our tour and headed off the boat - now 30 minutes late for our rendezvous with our friends.  They saw us walking off the gangplank and we headed over to meet them.  We decided we had had enough tall ships for one day (we'd been there for almost 7 hours now) so we walked back with the rest of humanity to meet the buses that would take us back to the underground rail.  Boston did a fine job of handling the crowds - we didn't' wait more than 3 minutes for buses to pick us up, despite the fact that there were huge crowds of people waiting.  We then went to Nathaniel Hall and had dinner.  We then wandered around some of the shops before we headed home.  Our friends had offered to stay in Boston for the fireworks, but it was getting cool and we were exhausted, so we chose to head home.   We did get to see them on TV that night.  Sunday we drove into Concord and toured some of the local sights - the North Bridge and downtown Concord.   Driving through the area showed that there's a lot of money floating around that area, and with good need.  Our friends told us that houses go for about twice what they do in this area.  My friend's wife is a realtor, and she showed us some homes and told us the prices on them.  Yikes!!  Your housing dollar certainly goes farther in the Capital Region.  The Kid had a tough day while in Concord, his eye being sensitive to light and watering like crazy.  We went back to the house for a quick lunch before heading back to Albany.  It was a pleasant drive, except for The Kid driving everyone crazy with complaints about his eye.  Luckily he was able to read Harry Potter with one eye closed, and that quieted him down for long stretches.

• 6/19/00 - It's here!  WWW.EJHONDA.COM !!  This URL should bring you directly  to my site, which is mine, and is owned by me.  I now sit in a basement bunker somewhere in Upstate New York waiting for American Honda to send their lawyers and try to wrestle my website from me.   Unless you can offer free 2 year leases on 2 Hondas of my choice for life, then don't even bother knockin'!

• I've been playing volleyball with The Wife's brother (that would make him my brother-in-law, I believe) now for this season.  Felt old when I began, but now having improved I feel only slightly inadequate.  Playing with the Out Of Control Ski Club.   Their web site is pretty lame, but they play some mean volleyball.  I play on Tuesday nights at the Polish American Club on Washington Ave Extension.  The really good players play on Mondays.  Because of the monsoon season we've had in Upstate NY (approximately 55% of the days since beginning of April have had rain), we've missed the last 2 weeks in a row.   My mad skills and conditioning should be right back to where they were when we started out.  Attrition of the full time players and desperation of the team captain have bumped me up from occasional sub to full-time player.

• On a never-ending quest to satiate my desire to shop for cars, I've agreed to help my mother-in-law spend a recently won legal settlement and hunt down a Buick LeSabre bargain for her.  Look for the gory details in upcoming updates.

• This week I'm currently in Java programming training.  Amazing stuff, and you can't make a bit of use out of your old COBOL skills.  My brain simply doesn't have enough firing neurons left to contain any more information.  Ted Kasczynski had it right, I'm telling you!

• 6/18/00 - It's been a busy time around our house recently.  I recently went to Atlanta for a week to attend the Vanguard Security Expo 2000.  The Wife and The Kid accompanied me down for the first part of the conference, unlike past conferences where they joined me at the end of the conference.  We packed a lot of sightseeing in on that weekend before the conference started, visiting Centennial Park, CNN Headquarters, The Coca Cola Museum, and Zoo Atlanta.  Centennial Park was interesting in that it gave some perspective to the bombing that took place there.  It's not a very busy place these days, but there was a small crowd gathered around the fountains that shoot out water in rhythmic patterns.   Children can wander into the fountains and walk thru the streams of water that shoot up out of the ground. 

• Across the street from the south end of the park is CNN Headquarters.  This was a pretty impressive building complex that is quite accessible to the public.  There's a large open food court area in the middle of the buildings that's open up to the top of the buildings that surround it.  Extremely large display screens ring the area and show the various Turner channels that are being broadcast - Headline News, CNN, CNN International, CNN Airport, CNN/SI, etc.  In fact, the Talk Back Live set is just outside of the Turner Gift Shop.We took a VIP tour of the studios and got to wander around some of the sets that they use to film various shows.  We started out with the lower-class general tour, traveling in a pack of about 35 tourists, but after the first 15 minutes we broke off into our more elite group of 10 for personal attention.  During our tour we passed by a studio where one of the Headline News' broadcasters was in the middle of her taping session - the sessions are taped and played for their 30 minute entirety on a repeating schedule for 4 hours.  It was interesting to watch the woman - she was pretty much alone on the set - she has a control panel in front of her that she works while taping stories, and stops taping between segments where commercials would normally be broadcast.  She was talking over an intercom to some production people about some portion of the show, but it was very laid back and relaxed.  The tour guide offered up that Lynne Russell, one of the more popular on-air personalities, tapes her segments dressed in blue jeans and bare feet.  The only part she dresses up is the portion of here torso that you see behind the desk (we also learned that she's a Deputy Sheriff of one of the local counties in Atlanta and a karate expert).  We got to see some of the tour members perform in front of a green screen, similar to the way a weather person would do their broadcast.  The weather map is layered on top of the shot of the person in front of the green screen so that the weather map only shows up on the green screen.   The tour guides showed us how to watch the monitors at the side in order to get a feel for where you are pointing.  Inside secret #1 - never try to point with a steady finger at a location; you'll never get near enough to it to satisfy people who are familiar with the area you are trying to point out.  Instead, make a general sweeping motion to make sure that you cover any are that would be considered near the area.   The Wife and I were being goofy and I was asking her if we were going to see Wolf Blitzer.   The Wife wasn't sure who he was, but she managed to talk The Kid into asking the tour guide, a young Hugh Grant-looking fellow, if Wolf Blitzer was around.  The Tour Guide told us that Wolf was in Washington and wasn't going to be around that day.    The Kid was funny as he waited patiently for the Tour Guide to get done with his spiel on the activities in the production room before asking his Wolf question, turning to use at least 3 times and wispering "It's 'Wolf Blitzer'?" trying to remember his line.  We wandered over and saw some of the CNN/SI studios and actually got to peek in on a set where a gentleman was doing a live broadcast on CNN International.   Even more thrilling was when the show went to a taped piece and he wheeled around to yell at the production crew, demanding to know who messed up the grammar in his cues during his intro of the tape.  The Tour Guide got us out of there and explained that the on-air personalities are extremly sensitive about what they read off of the teleprompters because they try to make sure that the audience has the illusion that the news people are simply ad libing their way through the piece, and to hear someone use bad grammer makes it look like the news person isn't as intellligent or smooth as they appear to be.  Nothing like a little conflict to spice up the tour.  We ended the tour in the Gift Shop, where we rec'd $15 credits for merchandise.  Glad we waited to make any purchases until AFTER the tour!!  The Kid bought a Scooby Doo doll, and I went with a Space Ghost t-shirt, my new favorite show.  

• Our tour of the Coca Cola Museum was fun, but it posed some interesting questions as well.  Why were we being asked to pay $10 to view what amounted to a very large commercial, and in most ways, an indoctrination in everything Coke?  Because it was fun, I guess.  The museum had a lot of memoribilia displayed, and had a timeline of events ringing some of the rooms.  I know what you're thinking, what kind of history can a soda have, but I did find it interesting on how things got started, the various shifts in advertising, getting an inside look at the near-religious fervor with which Coke coolers were promoted, and how valued they were by the stores that were lucky enough to get them.  They also had some short films covering the early days, and also some of the commercials for Coke from the last 30 years.  Some we remembered and others we didn't.  At the end of the tour we were allowed to sample as much of the product as we wanted - The Kid and I opted for the Barq's Rootbeer.  After we downed a few glasses of that stuff, we felt full and headed on out - but came upon another sampling room that contained Coke's products that are marketed in other countries.  China, Italy, Germany, Malaysia, Russia, South America were just some of the areas that were represented.  One of my favorites was a Watermelon soda from China.  By unanimous decision, the least favorite was something called Bitter Apertif from Italy.   Bitter doesn't begin to describe it - it was akin to licking the poles on a car battery, the kind with months of white gunk built up on them.  This stuff was bad.  

• Zoo Atlanta was your typical mediocre city zoo.  One day we took a cab to Zoo Atlanta - the Hilton Concierge told us that the bus went through some rough neighborhoods and he didn't recommend the ride.  The cabbie seemed to have trouble finding the entrance to the zoo, and I began to get suspicious that he was simply trying to run up the meter, but as it turned out they had some special event going that day and had closed some of the entrances.  We finally just got out and had the cabbie point us in the direction of the zoo and walked through Grant Park.  The highlight of the zoo for me was visiting the Sprint PCS promotion tent at the entrance and making a free cell phone call to Mom for Mothers Day.  Just outside the zoo was a non-descript building bearing the words 'Cyclorama'.   The Wife had read a bit about it in one of the hotel tourist mags so we decided to check it out, much to the chagrin of The Kid.  The building holds one of the world's largest paintings, depicting the Battle of Atlanta, that occured during Sherman's March to the Sea during the Civil War.  If I remember correctly the painting at one time was nearly 55 ft. high, but after having been taken on tour during the early 1900's and being tacked up at the top and then simply torn down, the painting is now only 35 ft high, and is a completely circular form of about 150+ ft in circumference.  They also have a locomotive in the downstairs area, The Texas, that apparently was involved in some sort of chase of Union spies who were sent to disrupt train rails in that area.  The cyclorama was an excellent display, with either the painting moving around the audience, or the audience platform spinning around to view the entire painting.  Model figures have been added near the bottom of the painting to give it a three dimensional feel.   As the presentation progresses, a recorded narration gives information about 40+ situations depicted in the painting, with a spotlight highlighting the area that's featured.  It was very well done, and it turned out The Kid loved it.  During the conference, I rec'd word that I would be traveling to Fairfax, VA to oversee a computer security audit of my employer's system.  I started to understand all the 'road warrior' articles I had read in my trade magazines - it's a tough life living out of a suitcase, and even tougher to make arrangements and gear up for a trip when you are currently on a trip.  Outside my hotel room window I could see a nice running track and basketball court that was located on the 4th floor of the Hilton I was staying in.   The night before I was to fly out, I decided to go and rent a basketball and get in some much needed exercise.  It was very warm out, but I was loaded with new, free, promotional t-shirts from the vendors who displayed products at the conference.  So I put on my 'Gnatbox' t-shirt and decided to just go and shoot jumpers for an hour before dinner.  Shortly after I got out on the court, courtesy of a security guard who unlocks the facility for you, a guy came up to the door and asked if anyone else was coming to play.  I told him I didn't know and just went back to shooting.   Within 5 minutes about 4 more guys showed up and were shooting around at the basket at the other end.  They usually played half-court, from what I had seen on previous nights, so I figured I'd be safe and just keep shooting.  No sense in getting involved in a game when you have no muscles to have 'game' with, anyway.  Just as I completed that thought, I hear "Would you like to play?".  I tell the guy that I'm not equipped to play fast because I've got running shoes on ('I can't make any fast cuts' I tell the guy, which was true, but had nothing to do with my footwear).   He tells me that it's the same for him, so with my excuse shot down I agree to play.  I stretch out a bit and look over the other guys, who appear to be about my size, but maybe a bit more in shape.  No problem, I think.  Then I notice one guy who's black and about 6' 3", but I figure I've got a 50/50 chance of getting on his team.  They begin to shoot baskets to choose teams, and try to figure out where to hide my ball so that I don't get charged some ridiculous fee to replace it.  As I turn back around, they tell me it's my turn to shoot.  "Please god, let me at least hit rim" as I take the ball and dribble it like I'm a pro.  I take a quick look at the basket and let fly - swish!  Cool, but now I've set some expectations.   We divy up and the black guy is on the other team.  As they pair off, I get to oppose the same guy.  Now I'm hoping going up and down those stairs at work is worth something.  The guy was fast, and was a good rebounder, but luckily he's a team player and passes a lot - not taking shots I give up by sagging back on defense.   Feeling confident now that he hasn't ripped me up in 2 trips up and down the court, I  start trying to take 20 footers - heck, the free throw went - but the just don't go in.  Our only scorer is this guy who goes under the basket and takes outrageously difficult shots guarded by 2 & 3 guys at a time, trying to bank it off the backboard like some trick shot.  He ends up making about every other one, though, so I give up on my shots and start feeding him.  As the game winds down, I start getting tremendous pains in my gluteous max's - my butt muscles are cramping bad from running.   The game ends and I try to non-chalantly rub my cramps.  They ask for another game, but I decline - I want to be able to walk onto the plane tomorrow without any assistance.

• 5/5 - Time flies when you're disorganized, unmotivated, and undisciplined.  The Kid has started up Little League again.  Despite some early rants about not wanting to play, he is right into the swing of things and is doing a solid job.  I've been happy to be involved in everything from coaching kids to helping setup and cleanup practices and games.  Coach Goldstein is a good guy and is great with the kids.  We lost our first game 13-7, in which the team was extremely nervous for some reason.  We allowed 4 runs in the first inning on bad plays to first base alone.  They settled down and tied it up at 7-7, but another string of tough breaks let the other team romp.  Our second game this past Thursday was an 11-2 win, with the milestone of me keeping the scorebook.  I took a crash course during the first game and then did a late night study on www.baseball-almanac.com.  We're also in the middle of preparing for our trip to Atlanta, where The Kid and The Wife will tour while I attend the Vanguard Security Expo.   I finally took the plunge and had RoadRunner cable modem service installed.   The speed is amazing and very convenient since it requires no login procedure - it's on when you turn the PC on.  However, because your PC now sits on a shared network, it's important to install security software so that the next-door neighbors can't hack into your PC and manipulate your Quicken financial data or what-not.  I installed the highly-regarded and very cheap (free!) ZoneAlarm firewall software.  Easy to install and even easier to administer.

• 5/5 - The quotable EJ:  I've had several recent entities publish quotes on various topics.  See if you can find my quote among the hundreds at the VIP Security Expo site, or read my brilliance at the Kiwi Enterprise's site.  Older material can also be found on Computerworld's website as I checked in on recruiter flipping, the death of laptops, and trade show booth bimbos.

• 2/27 - Once again, I attempt to rebuild the spectacular Temple of EJ that those of you who flock here weekly demand to see.  Based on a groundswell of criticism, and not wanting to scare those 2 viewers away, I have done an extensive and exhaustive search (I went to Lycos and did a search on "free web hosting" and chose the first hit) and have come up with ProHosting, of the Utah hinterlands.  This new service will do away with the annoying popup windows that Geocities and their ilk demand.  This site will be 'under construction' for a few weeks until I get things righted around again.

• 2/27 - The Wife, The Kid, and I went bowling with our co-workers today.   This was the first time The Kid bowled without benefit of bumpers, so he was a bit frustrated by the easy access to the gutters (as were my first 2 balls thrown in about 10 years).  The Wife did a number on her nails but bowled some respectable games.  I wavered in the 130 range for my first 2 games until my fingers went totally dead and then I could ignore the pain and bowl a typical 156.  We all had fun.

• 2/21 - So long ago I thought this would be easy - to update a site and keep it fun and interesting!  I don't know where my time goes, but as you all know it certainly doesn't get plowed into this site.  We'll see if we can do at least a biweekly refresh from now on.

• 2/21 - The Kid has done better this year in basketball.  Still not the fastest kid on the court, but he's gotten a lot better at scoring.  His big day came back in the beginning of February when he was able to score 18 points in a game.   Unfortunately, he had been lent to the opposing team because they were shorthanded that morning.  To top it off, he was at his dad's that weekend, so The Wife and I showed up for what we thought was an 11am game only  to find him shaking hands w/ the "other" team at the end of his game - apparently he played the 9:30am game that day.  Whoops!

• 2/21 - Our winter seems to be trying to make up for the lack of snow early on by dumping on us twice now so far.  We've had 2 good-size storms come through in the last 3 weeks, both producing over 12" of snow each time.  The snowblower has come in handy once again.  Now if I could just find time to break out the cross country skis that haven't seen snow in 2 years, that would be a boon.

• 2/21 - Still trying to size up the broadband options that are coming to the greater Albany NY area.  The Time Warner guys were buzzing around our neighborhood last week.  The Wife called me up at work to let me now they were all over the neighborhood (she took Kid duty for one of his snow days), so I told her to venture outside and ask them what was up.  They told her it was in preparation for digital cable and Road Runner cable modem service!  Alright!  The only thing is, I was hoping for DSL service since it seems to be a bit faster and less insecure than cable modem service.  With a cable modem, you  are actually on a giant neighborhood network, which allows anyone that has the know-how to poke around at all the other PCs that are connected to that network and turned on.  You need to put some firewall software on your PC in order to lock things down and make sure that someone doesn't steal any financial info or what-not off of your PC.  Bell Atlantic has been claiming since last August ('99) that DSL service was just around the corner, but after I fired off an angry email to them (I know, which of my emails ISN'T angry?) they seemed to be feeding the line of it'll be available in "the next 6 months".  Great.

• 12/3 Weekend - The Wife and I attended our work Christmas party on Friday.  I was able to slide into my 1 suit one more time - the 1 I purchased as my starter business suit that featured the "athletic cut".  I'm now in the market for the "middle-age couch spud cut" suit.  I was shamed into dancing, and made sure I consumed enough beers to not care too much.  We had a good time - especially since I stacked the table w/ all my male co-workers so we could talk PC horsepower and other techie issues.   Saturday we took The Kid to his basketball game, where he now towers over the younger kids in the league.  He still is learning the nuances of the game, but did a great job bringing the ball up the court.  He scored 4 points - matching his TOTAL point output of last year.  We then spent the rest of the day putting up our Christmas tree and rooting on Navy over Army.  We then ended up doing some Christmas shopping that night, with The Kid insisting that he needed a pair of ski goggles.  The argument went like this:

  • Doubtful Adult - "Why do you need those?"

  • The Kid - "Because snow gets in my eyes!"

  • Doubtful Adult - "When does snow get in your eyes?"

  • The Kid - "When I sled!"

  • Doubtful Adult - "But those are for skiing, when you go real fast..."

  • The Kid - "But I go fast when I sled, and then I fall down on my face and get snow in my eyes!"

  • Doubtful Adult - "Maybe later.."

  • The Kid - "But I need them now!"

  • Doubtful Adult - "There's no snow on the ground!"

  • The Kid - "Sometimes wind gets in my eyes!"

  • continued ad infinitum

  Sunday once again saw us busy as we went through our normal Sunday school & church routine, I worked on installing a new sound card in my problematic new PC, while The Kid went out to play in the balmy weather and The Wife went on errands.   When The Wife returned we realized we had about 10 minutes to go before heading out to hear a concert.  The Wife works with a woman who plays a cello in a community orchestra, and when she told this woman that The Kid plays the French Horn, then this woman decided it would be a great idea to introduce The Kid to the orchestra and its performance.  We attended and had a good time, although The Kid was a bit fidgety towards the end, despite a 10 minute intermission.  The Wife and I had fun singing at The Kid in stereo during the sing-along portion, and The Kid perked right up when cookies and punch time arrived at the end.  The discussion on the way home was how we really needed to stop at a sporting goods store in order to purchase a snowboard so that The Kid would then need ski goggles, too.

• 10/28 - The Sister and her horn quartet have moved to new digital digs.   Seems the Erols internet service I gifted them with just wasn't cutting it.   After much discussion about it, I suggested they start looking elsewhere for reliable Internet access, and they ended up at MindSpring.  Seems good so far.   I haven't had a chance to check our their website to see if it has changed appreciably yet or not.

• 10/28 - EJ continues his support of the materialistic nature of this world with his order for a brand-new Micron PC.  My old Micron has served me well the past 5 years, but as its performance fell further and further behind, despite numerous upgrades, and as technology introduced bigger and more resource-consuming forms of entertainment, I finally had to capitulate.  The last straw was trying to view streaming video of some guy walking around Comdex topless and handing out business literature in a sort of new-wave Candid Camera net show.   When my ability to see moronic stunts like this is hampered, I have no choice but to take decisive action.  Plus its fun to brag about having the latest PC hot rod!  Of course I've explained to The Wife that this is merely a Y2K precautionary step, seeing as our current PC is not Y2K compliant and can't be made that way, we needed to gird for the the challenge and have a redundant PC capability in our home.  Not only for watching moronic video clips, but also for mindless web surfing, emailing dirty jokes, and watching my mutual fund performance on a day-to-day basis, even though the funds' value won't matter for another 25 years.  The great trick here was to scare The Wife by telling her I was seriously interested in purchasing $1500 worth of performance parts for my Honda (stainless steel header, exhaust, and air intake), and then showing her that I was much more practical and blowing a wad of cash instead on a more practical item, like a PC.

• Week of 10/25 - Call has pulled through with flying colors.  You haven't lived until you have taken a cat's temperature rectally. Whee!  Call has gained a full pound and is back to her usual routine: hiding around the house, acting like she could be killed by anything at anytime (except between the hours of 9:30pm - 10:00pm & 8:00am).  The Kid's soccer season came to a pretty successful end.  His team ended up with a record of around 4-1-2.  My coaching career started on a glorious note, when I captained the team for the last game.  My brilliant strategy and player substitutions gave us a spectacular 5-2 victory, resulting in our highest goal total for the season.  We now experience a welcomed calm before the next season starts up - basketball.

• Week of 9/27 - Our poor cat Call has been clinging to life recently.   After we came back from our vacation to Baltimore I noticed that the cat had lost some weight.  The Wife noticed that the cat wasn't showing up for breakfast, either (one of her all-time favorite items - Call, not The Wife), so we made an appointment to go see the vet.  Our regular vet, a guy who only makes house calls, wasn't available right away, so I suggested we try the "Just Cats" practice that we pass every time we go to the supermarket.  What a great staff they have, and the place is very cat-friendly.  Call was admitted immediately and put on an IV, and they attempted to force feed her a high calorie food paste, but she wouldn't keep it down.  Next came the insertion of a feeding tube and then injections of a high calorie liquid, but she wouldn't keep that down either.  Things were looking pretty grim, and The Wife and Kid were wrecks from it.  They would go and visit Call almost every day, and we could tell she wasn't doing well from her lethargic behavior.  The vet recommended either sending Call to Cornell's vet school for further evaluation or have another vet consult on it and perform an ultrasound and liver biopsy.  Unfortunately for Call, her blood wouldn't coagulate because of her malnutrition, so a biopsy was ruled out.    The Wife and I decided that we didn't want to send the poor cat off to Cornell for who knows how much time (and money) for unsure results.  We scheduled the ultrasound and kept our fingers crossed.  The ultrasound showed the cat with pancreas and liver problems, but didn't really point out a cause.  The consulting vet suggested a new drug regimen including steroids and vitamin K, a blood clotting agent.   The turnaround the next day was dramatic, with Call meowing, sitting up, and nibbling on food.  The vet was cautiously optimistic, but said we could take Call home in another few days if she kept everything down.  She's still skin and bones, but she's home, and we've been schooled in how to crush up her pills, mix a little water with them, and then slowly inject the mixture into her feeding tube.  She looks pretty weird with both front paws having shaved areas for IVs, a completely shaved underbelly from the ultrasound, and then a wide blue bandage wrapped around her neck to keep the feeding tube secure (it goes from her throat out through the skin on the back of her neck.   I talked to one woman at work, another farm-savvy person, and we both marveled at how lucky this cat was to have not been on the farm, where it would have been "replaced" by another barn cat or put in a sack and drowned.  All I can say is, after paying the vet bill, that cat better hang around for another 15 years!

• Week of 9/27 - Our lawn is beginning to look nasty since the drought.   There's big brown patches that never came back once we rec'd our record 11 inches of rain for the month.  I noticed little holes, almost perfectly round, all over the dead thatch and was told that's birds foraging for grubs.  I took out my dethatching rake and raked up a few of the areas, and when the sod came up with the rake, sure enough, I saw grubs.  Now I've been spending a few hours a night outside raking up the dead patches (not just raking normally, but using the ground breaking blades of the thatch rake - if you've never used one before, you don't know the work you're missing), and then laying down grass seed.  When I get the time I'm going to nuke those grubs with some diazanon and go totally anti-environmental with them.  We had to attend The Kid's School Open house last night and ran into one of the parents that lives in the other side of our neighborhood.  He rides bike with his family and said he noticed how much work I was putting into the lawn.  I should just pay someone to do it, but my spirit hasn't been broken quite yet (give it another week of raking).

• Weekend of 9/10 - The family had a busy time with our new fall schedule.   The Kid started 4th grade, and seemed to be interested in playing both Fall baseball and soccer, his main joy.  The schedules seemed to mesh well, but then baseball made some schedule changes and shifted things to the weekends, so now we're pulling soccer practice Saturday mornings, then it's off to baseball where the kid changes into his uniform in the parking lot.  Sundays prove most interesting when we hit church and Sunday School, then experience a variable schedule that may include conflicting soccer games and baseball games.

• Labor Day weekend '99 - We took a trip south to visit my sister and brother-in-law in the Baltimore suburbs.  The Kid made it almost 90 minutes on the road before launching into a chant of "How much longer?" every 5 minutes.   Driving down on a Thursday morning proved smart, and traffic was relatively light the whole way down, except for some major backups on the Thruway near NYC going the opposite way.  Bummer leaving the city.  Once down there we got right back into the swing of things with the Kid and his cousins.  Olivia and Josiah picked up where they left off from our last visit, but Emily, now 2 and worlds away from where we last saw her as a baby, wasn't so sure of these visitors.  The Kid was real good with little kids and immediately tried to establish a connection, but Emily played shy with him most of the time.  Adam immediately treated us to a tour of the newly-built 2nd and 3rd stories of their house (which I most fortunately missed being in on by attending the Dallas security conference this past June).  There's nothing quite like climbing up a ladder and entering the second floor via a hole in the first floor ceiling where a volunteer plunged through early on in the construction, bouncing off the washing machine below.  Of course the kids all followed us up and busied themselves with various saws and scraps of wood that laid around while Adam verbally ran us through the floor plan.   I watched nervously as these kids walked around on the loose pieces of subflooring that are only temporarily laid down and leave large gaps between the floor joists.  I figure if a Navy member can't keep himself from falling through this floor, what chances do a 9, 6, 4, and 2 year old have?  They pretty much stayed out of trouble, though, and kept busy with the drywall saw and some pieces of Styrofoam. Our day trips included a visit to Annapolis and the Naval Academy.  It was a pretty nice day, and Adam gave us a tour of the grounds.  The place reeks of history, which unfortunately didn't do much for the kids after about 45 minutes of it, but I found it fascinating.  We ended up touring the museum, where there were far too many artifacts to examine than one could do justice to in an hour, so the gang decided to head back in order to get Olivia from the school bus, while I chose to hang around on campus until Adam came back and performed in a parade.  I headed back to the museum and poked around some more, taking note of a collection of bone carvings that were done by French naval prisoners during the 1700's and the war between England and France/Spain.  Apparently the French navy had a habit of drafting artisans into its ranks, and when these guys were captured they would carve bones as a way to escape the boredom.  The carvings were so good that English benefactors ended up providing them with tools and materials and allowed them to sell their wares.   The carvings were of sailing ships of the period and were carved from beef bone.   Using broken pieces of glass attached to a stick sometimes, these guys made intricately detailed replicas of various man-o-wars.  Fascinating stuff.  I then headed to the parade grounds and joined a good-size crowd to review the 4,000 midshipmen in parade, along with both the Naval Academy band and the drum and bugle corp.  Some Admiral bigwig was on hand to inspect the proceedings, and the fired a true 21 gun salute in his honor, using 2 cannons.  By the time the 21 shots had been fired, smoke from the cannons blanked the parade grounds.  It was impressive stuff.  The class was divided into 2 groups, and then subdivided into about 25 subgroups.  Each group had a set of midshipmen who would scream commands that would cause the midshipmen to shoulder their weapons and other various activities.  It was fun to watch as sometimes the 2 groups would have instructions yelled in unison to them.  The rattle of the rifles and the glint of the bayonets lent a very serious military air to the whole scene.   The units then turned and marched out in the order they had marched on the field.   As each unit left the field (the class is broken down into about 25 groups of over a hundred midshipmen), the announced the leader of the group and where they were from.   I heard one leader announced as being from Wyalusing, near my old stomping grounds.   I also noticed that there was at least one female leader.

• New reviews of Shakespeare In Love and Rushmore on the Movie Review page.   My disdain of the theater-going public feeds the need to rent videos on a regular basis.  Now that Gene Siskel is dead, it's a bit harder to weed out the good and the bad.  Therefore, I'll offer up my opinions on whether a video is worthwhile or not.

• Week of 8/18: The Kid was on vacation recently with his father, so the Wife and I had a week to ourselves.  We had a list of things to do, but blew most of them off and managed to watch 5 videos.  We're preparing to make a trek soon to see my sister in Baltimore and to shake up their household for awhile.  One of the unfortunate timing of events that took place during The Kid's vacation was it was time for the annual Retired Professor's Family get-together in Oswego, NY.  The Wife and I went out on a Friday evening and rolled into Oswego just in time to partake in the last weekend of the Sterling Renaissance Festival.  The Wife had mentioned it during previous visits, but quite honestly it always kind of escaped me as to what the big draw was.  This time out we had firsthand accounts from some people at work as to its viability, so measuring the Festival up with spending extended time with the in-laws worked out to equal a good time to visit the Festival.  Yours truly, trying to enjoy the full Festival experience, ended up being drawn into a naught bit by some of the actors.  More on this to follow in the coming days!

• I attended the Vanguard Enterprise Security Expo from June 5th to June 11th.  The Wife and The Kid flew out and joined me in Dallas to wander around and check out another part of the country that we hadn't experienced.  I had a pretty good conference, using the email system that the conference setup and made available to attendees to keep in touch with friends and relatives and keep them up-to-date on the Dallas Stars Cup fever that was sweeping Dallas while also getting the lowdown on my sister's house renovations.  Dallas was an interesting city, different from what I had envisioned it would be.  Buildings were more spread out than they would be in NYC, and there were a lot less people around.   We stayed in the Financial district at the Adam's Mark Hotel, which boasts it's the largest hotel in Texas - over 1800 rooms.  Unfortunately for The Kid, the hotel chose to renovate both their indoor and outdoor pool during our stay, so he was without that form of entertainment.  Strike two against the hotel was the lack of a game room or arcade.  Dallas itself was not as impressive as Denver was last year.  The Wife and The Kid struck out on their own on Thursday, since I was in class, and headed to the Dallas Zoo and the Dallas Aquarium.  Both were smaller than what we saw in Denver, but the kid enjoyed them all the same.  His favorite part of both?  The gift shops, where he could find a toy and whine away in order to wear down his mom into buying it.  The heat spiked up for their arrival (unlike Denver, where the temperature went from the 90's to the 50's for their arrival), so they had a tough time walking around the city.  Dallas has a nice light rail system, DART, but it didn't reach all the various attractions that we wanted to check out.   Once again, we were experiencing the local mass transit system, mainly the bus line, in order to get to the Cavanaugh Flight Museum and Fair Park (home of the Cotton Bowl).  The Wife put on a brave face for me on our trek to the flight museum, but The Kid was vocal in his protestations of the nearly 3 mile hike after a 20 minute bus ride to get near the Addison airport where the museum resides.  It looked close on the map, but it was a hike, and the temps were near 90 along a busy 4 lane road with no sidewalks and little shade.  The Wife tried to look interested while The Kid and I gawked at all the vintage W.W.I, W.W.II, Korean, and Viet Nam era aircraft.   The Kid seemed to dig it, and I was in my glory.  I almost sprang for a $150 ride in a vintage W.W.II plane, but it was only a T-3 trainer, so I decided not to challenge the look that The Wife gave me when I seemed unfazed by the ride's cost.   On the way back, I had the clerk at the museum's gift shop call us a cab to take us back to the bus depot.  He didn't know where the depot was, but we were able to direct him to it, or near it I should say.  We had him drop us off at a little stone mason business where Hispanics were chipping mortar off of old bricks to be used again, and Selena was playing from an old Ford truck.  The rest of the day we spent at Fair Park.  Our bus ride their took us through some of the more "pedestrian" neighborhoods of Dallas, and I took note of the barb wire fencing around the parking lots of the townhouses that yuppies were purchasing in a renovations attempt of the old Arts district.  When the bus dropped us off at Fair Park, the skies had some very threatening clouds to the south.  The night before Dallas had some flash flooding and torrential rains to the northern suburbs, and storms were possible this day as well.   We wandered into Fair Park, and tried to get our bearings, keeping one eye on the buildings available in case we needed to make a quick dash to avoid lightening and rain.   We apparently looked very lost because we were approached by a nice Keith Jackson looking guy on a golf cart who asked us if we needed help.  We told him what we were looking for (the Aquarium - another one, and some of the science and natural history museums there), and he told us to hop on the golf cart and he'd take us to them.  We felt a little foolish, but he explained that this was his job, so we didn't argue with him.  As we tooled along he pointed out the various buildings and what they were.   As luck had it, the museums and aquarium were all within 10 minutes walking distance of each other, so he let us off and bade us farewell.  If nothing else, we found Dallas to have some of the most friendly people around, especially for a big city.   The afternoon before we took a trip downtown to the West End and decided to visit The Sixth Floor Museum, a memorial to JFK and his assassination there in Dallas.  I was a little skeptical of what this place would be like, especially after hearing some conference attendees tell me about the unofficial tour guide who showed them around outside after they left the museum, but The Wife seemed interested, so we went.  Had a devil of a time finding it (ignore the maps that are posted in the area - they are strangely inaccurate), but after wandering around for 20 minutes in a circle we discovered the museum was located directly across from the DART station we had gotten off at.   It cost us $20 bucks for the 3 of us to get in, but it was a moving experience.   Nothing gruesome was displayed, but the looping footage of Walter Cronkite reporting the death of JFK and the various pictures of the events of that day were gripping stuff.  We sat down and watched a quick movie that showed various reactions to the event all over the world, and I nearly was moved to tears.  I found it fascinating to read all of the anti-JFK press that the local Dallas papers reported - I never knew that aspect existed.  It definitely helped fill in some of the holes in my knowledge.  The Kid was a bit young to understand all of the items presented, but he hung in there and checked everything out.  He was so well behaved that we got him a "Young Harvey Oswald Sniper's Kit" - sorry, I had to get a joke in there somewhere.

• The Wife and I went and attended this year's Blue House Gang (BHG) social event of the year, Susie's wedding.  Oh what memories that brought back, just like old times.  Susie had some oddball themes in her wedding (have you ever seen nearly a dozen ATV's used in a bridal party before?) and, with Prince Edward's marriage occurring on the same day, outshone him in the number in her bridal party (over 25, I believe).  The one known as "Dr. Damage" revisited his BUP party days and provided entertainment for the reception, having too many drinks and then redecorating our table with a doll swiped from the kid's table and then posing it with beer bottles and enhancing it with creamer cups on its chest to make it look very Madonna-esque.   Little did we know that the wedding planner sat at the table next to ours, and she was horrified at how we were making a mockery of her decorations.  She approached Susie to warn her of our actions, but Susie just told her that we were her college friends and that we were harmless.  Susie's family was pretty calm, and the much-anticipated clashing of the godly and the godless never really came to be.  There was one tense moment when the DJ accidentally slipped "Paradise By the Dashboard Light" into the song mix, but a quick cut-throat motion from the bride brought the song to an abrupt end only 20 seconds after it started.  We had the good fortune to witness some poor woman attempt to stem the flow of blood from her nose from an apparent fall off of a small riser.  After copious amounts of cloth napkins were carried away by wait staff, the ambulance arrived (unnoticed by many) and carted the poor thing off.  Pat made a note that the women's bathroom had no doors on any of the stalls, and that the stall walls were only several feet high.  To top it off, they were all visible from the dance floor when anyone opened the door.  This was odd because the rest of the place seemed a pretty nice joint.  We had all driven to the reception in T-roy's van, so when it came time to leave we had to help Dr. Damage collect his stuff - he was a groomsman - and get him back to the Barnyard Village.  Dr. Damage's continuous chant of "Where's my bag?" gave us a good laugh the whole way home.  We all stayed at the Barnyard - actually called "The Barnhouse Villa" - but because of its ruralness, we decided "Barnyard" was much more appropriate.  The staff of the Barnyard Villa didn't like it, though.  They corrected us each time.  The Wife and I got lost following Susie's directions, and we actually ended up at the church 30 minutes before the wedding, still unchanged into our good clothing and needing to check-in to the Barnyard.  I, being male, was prevented from asking for directions, and decided it would be reasonable to search for the place at least until nightfall before giving up.   The Wife insisted, however, that we pull into a convenience store and ask for directions.  I did and she went in.  We eventually found the Barnyard and rushed inside to check-in, only to find a dark office.  The Wife instructed me to stay there - just in case someone showed up to staff it -while she wandered into a dining area to see if she could scare someone up.  Soon a nice blonde girl came in and asked us how she could help us.  We explained that we were in a big hurry to check-in, and she told us she was relieved that we weren't a bride that was supposed to arrive soon to discuss arrangements, because then we would have been early.  The Wife and I cut her short and told her we were in grave danger of missing our wedding if we didn't get our room pronto.  The clerk told us she understood and started about searching for a key to the office.  Just then an older guy poked his head in the outer office and told the young girl that table 5 needed their check.  It was obvious that this girl was very important at the Barnyard - performing both check-in duties and waitressing duties.   She soon got us our key and we raced into the room, threw our clothing all over and got ready in about 3 minutes flat, raced back out the door, and I broke several state and federal highway statutes and made it to the church 5 minutes before the bride did.   Whew!!  Okay, so back to the night of the wedding.... We arrived back at the Barnyard about 10:40pm.  The BHG (Blue House Gang) seemed to be interested in attending the Island Party that the Barnyard restaurant was holding out in its parking lot. Seems they were celebrating their 5th anniversary or something.  Dr. Damage was particularly interested in continuing the festivities at what  he called "Caribbean Night", which once again the various Barnyard staff who heard us say this corrected us and told us it was "Island Night".  Same thing - they had tropical drinks on special and were handing out plastic lais.  Dr. Damage started talking to the check-in/waitress/barmaid that we had dealt with earlier in the day.   She tried her best to deflect him, even giving him a pin that blinked that only the staff were wearing, but Dr. Damage kept his banter up.  She finally said she was going somewhere and would be back, but she didn't come back.  Dr. Damage then moved on to another barmaid, where he confiscated her drink tray and started to march around the parking lot carrying it in the artsy palm-up method, yelling "Pretzels? Pretzels? Does anyone need pretzels?" - an arcane reference to a situation which occurred at a party we hosted back in our senior year (mid 80's) at BUP, when Dr. Damage was carrying a tray full of pretzels, offering them to guests, but because of his intoxicated state didn't realize that the tray was at a 25 degree angle, strewing pretzels all over our floor, while T-roy wore my bike lock as a belt and started to yell at a rat which he claimed he could hear running around in our house walls at night, challenging it to come out and face him or doom its offspring to be shamed forever when T-roy's offspring attended BUP in 20 years, and then T-roy finished the night by placing a pizza pan full of caramel (we had made caramel apples earlier that day) in the basement, in hopes of trapping the invisible rodent in sticky goo, but within 30 seconds he ended up stepping in it himself while wearing football turf shoes, and nearly fell into the basement wall while trying to pry the pizza pan off of his foot, bending the pizza pan in the process, an image that will be burned into my mind for life. The next day provided even more entertainment when I, as the only non-imbibing member of the BHG party the previous night, watched disasters unfold as the various hungover BHG men woke up and queued up to unimbibe in our one bathroom.  This forced at least one to use the back porch, and it was at that very moment that his mother called, and G-man, being the sensitive one of the gang, succinctly told her that she'd have to wait while he got her son from the back porch, where he was vomiting.  Meanwhile, T-roy realized to his horror that he was supposed to go and cover some local high school sporting event for his internship at the local newspaper, and that he wouldn't survive without Pepto Bismol.  I ended up going to the pharmacy for him.  Meanwhile, G-man ate something for breakfast, but that didn't sit real well with him, so he went back to bed.  This all occurred before 10:30 am on a Saturday morning. Let this be a lesson to all you young ones on the dangers of alcohol!   Anyway, back to the Barnyard Island party - The barmaid gets her tray back, and actually serves Dr. Damage a beer.  We begin talking to some of the people assembled at the tables set up in the parking lot, and discover that one of the couples there is actually a friend of Susie's who helped get them, uh, "dis-enrolled", from an upstate NY Christian college.  Seems that Susie and this young lady, we'll call her "E", noticed that security in the ladies' dorm was lax, probably owing to the fact that since everyone was of a Christian slant, that there shouldn't be too much to worry about that would require locked room doors.  This caused Susie and E to mull the particulars over, and they decided it would be funny to play a joke.  Their premise?  Visit all the rooms during some mandatory attendance mass gathering, and remove every bra that they could find.  Most of the females in the freshman class were now left with only the bra they were wearing.  For you guys, equate this to being left with one pair of underwear.  After several days, this situation reached crisis proportions, and the administration were forced to become involved.   Apparently Susie and E were able to hide several large trashbags full of bras unnoticed.  The administration finally came out and demanded an end to the situation.   I'm fuzzy on the details of how the bras came back, either the pair were discovered and forced to return the bras, or they decided to try to vent some of the heat and return them on their own, but they both were struck by how after the piles of bras were left out and everyone had picked through them, there were quite a few ratty bras left unclaimed.   Anyway, back to the Barnyard Island party.  The bride shows up at the Island party dressed in full bridal regalia, and she catches the DJ's eye.  He announces over the loudspeaker that there's a lucky couple at the party and that the DJ is going to play a song just for them.  We start looking around wondering who the DJ thinks is the groom, who we'll call 'M', since M isn't at the party yet.  We quickly realize that the only guy in the parking lot wearing a tux is Dr. Damage, so we start urging Dr. Damage to go out on the dance floor with Susie and pretend to be the groom.  He's unsure whether to do it, but Susie goes along, so they go out and dance one number.   The DJ tries to play a second song for them, but Susie has to tell the DJ that Dr. Damage isn't the real groom.  Soon another wedding groomsman appears, and the DJ announces that the lucky man has just arrived, but we all call out that that's not him.   After this happens 2 more times, Susie explains to the DJ, as she has to us, that M the groom was up in their room taking a, well, sit on the bowl, and that Susie got tired of waiting for him and came down without him.  Finally the groom shows up, and the DJ announces publicly "I hope you washed your hands."  Although the Island party is scheduled to end at 11pm, the DJ continues on until midnight.  The Barnyard staff pack up all the chairs and tables and take them back into the restaurant, and the DJ finally ends the night with some weird song about freezing your butt off in a truck with no heat and has a chorus of foul language - it's a big hit with most of the people left in the lot.  They beg the DJ to keep going, but he says that local law doesn't allow him to go beyond midnight, so we all start wandering back to our Barnyard rooms.  The wedding party has the entire 12 room Barnyard rented out, which is good, because the wedding party continues to hoot and holler until just after 4am Sunday.  The Wife begged off of attending the Island party, and I'm considering the 4 hour drive back to home from the Barnyard, so when we get back to the rooms, I drift off from the crowd hoping not to be noticed.  Unfortunately for me, we're right next door to the main party room, so everyone notices me going to my door.  I guess I should explain that the Barnyard Villa is setup like a motel, with all the room doors facing a parking lot and the Barnyard restaurant next door.  Unlike a hotel, there is absolutely no motel staff on duty after the restaurant closes, so we are left to keep ourselves in line.   Big mistake.  I beg off and succeed in getting into our room. I watch Howard Stern's late night show and then turn in.  About 20 minutes later our room phone rings, and someone asks for me.  I greet them, and then am handed over to an assortment of people who alternately try to convince me to come over to the party room, entertain me with John Wayne impersonations, and ask me what I'm doing.  I give up once the group starts singing to me, so I hang up.  Next thing I hear, a group of people are congregating outside of our door and are not trying to be too quiet while they discuss what pranks they can pull.  They start banging on the door and yelling for us to come out.  I'm praying that the door lock holds and that they can't pick it.   They give up on banging on the door and then I hear some discussion of which car is mine.  Seeing as I'm driving the new one, I'm concerned.  I then hear them come up with a plan to place something in front of our door, and I get curious when someone discusses the appropriateness of the item(s) because of fire escape routes.  They finally grow tired of hounding us, sing a mangled verse of Jingle Bells, and then go back to annoying other rooms.  We awake to a knock on our door at 9am Sunday.  It's G-man asking us if we are ready to go to breakfast.  I take a peak outside and can't see much in front of our door.  I try to open it and have to really lean into it - a hay bale is against it, and there appears to be hay scattered over the parking lot.   A quick check of my car shows nothing out of the norm there. We ended up going to breakfast at The Old Country Buffet, and gave the Fathers' Day crowd a good show.   Keep checking the website for pictures of the wedding.  I promise they'll be posted by 7/25/99!!!

• Want a laugh?  Check out this item that will transport you back to the good old days, circa Christmas 1976!

• BAD NEWS!! No more new entries will be posted:  "Planet Chuck Weekly" has been abandoned by the Great One, Chuck Shepherd. These issues are all that remains of his wonderful (semi-)weekly effort.   His newest online offering is chock-full of threats concerning re-transmission of the material, so I'm going to leave well enough alone. Full of bizarre news items and insightful commentary by my idol, Chuck Shepherd, these are great reads.

• My sister now has a home page plugging her locally famous jug band.   No, seriously, she has done quite well using some WYSIWYG HTML editor to put together a very professional page.

• In my continuing quest to bring you sites that will cause you to wonder about me and our society in general, I bring you the Kooks Museum. Please note that this site is presented as a sideshow and is not intended to promote any of the ideas found therein. If you do find items at this site making sense, please let me know. At some point I will be developing a page to house all the links that I find interesting and to permanently reside after being featured on this page for a few weeks, or months, as my website maintenance schedule permits. 

• My big triumph this week, besides still being employed and married, is being able to present these two URLs. Each brings its own weirdness to my banquet table of bizarre, and helps to keep the table bountiful.  Those people who are fans of Sesame Street will find this very interesting, giving you inside scoops on many problems that you would assume never touch the lives of Muppets.

• Well, well, well. Visitors to this page have just recently discovered "The Stick Figure Death Theater" website, and find it gruesome, detestable, and strangely entertaining. After sifting through the sickness on this page, this one is my choice for "Champion SFDT Entity". Both links are fraught with danger and you may not hold me accountable for whatever you see. I would like to try my hand at it sometime, but it will take more time than I currently can afford.

• The real crime in this world is that Ted Kasczynski is in jail and Bill Clinton isn't.

• OK, ready for more Revolution? Well, here's a timely link that we can all relate to. It is time to throw off the shackles of consumerism and bring Christmas back to it's original purpose. Plus, this would help free up funds for computer peripherals, the only acceptable expression of consumerism and technology!

• The Big Gun Radio-Controlled Warship Combat website represents everything that is great about America. Can you imagine anywhere else on earth that would condone grown men competitively shooting at each other's toy warships?

• ("Pick-a-Suz") was a lot of fun, but my free time has taken big hits and I just haven't been able to keep my promise of refreshing the "The Meow Meadows Cattery Parody Website" occasionally. I will do my best to see if I can't change it soon (maybe the weekend of 2/20/02?).

• John continues to shape his Mayan temple of a website to beer. Do you like beer? Do you really like beer? Do you like beer so much that you'd abandon your family to devote all your free time to creating an Access database of your beer collection? Do you find that disturbing? Do you like to look at things you find disturbing? Do you want to check out John's Beer page?

• Steve seems to be busy with other things; moving, living, working, rearing a child, and enjoying his marriage.  What the heck is wrong with your priorities, dude? Let's get busy on that web page!... Check out his website.