The Big DumpTruck

Now that the snow has officially vamoosed from the front yard [the spell checker should love that one. -J] it appears that 800 pounds of sand have been deposited on our lawn. Ick.

So, faithful dump readers, what have you found to be the best way to remove sand from the grass:

• Broom
• plastic rake
• metal rake
• one of those leaf vacuumy things (which I don't own, so I hope this isn't the solution)
• something entirely different

According to the Fitchburg Sentinel, "Water poured out of a manhole cover near the intersection of Bemis Road and Benson Street in Fitchburg."

Okay, but there's a small problem with that. Bemis Road doesn't intersect with Benson Street. They are parallel to one another, and about 1/2 to a mile apart. So someone's going to have to draw me a picture to explain how they have an "intersection". (Are the local reporters not from around here any more?)

I realize I was just there in October, but I'm already starting to feel that itch to go back to Disney again. Is there something physiologically wrong with me? Probably not, as there are a LOT of people out there who feel the same way. My sister lacks this kind of wiring, as does her husband. But her kids (being kids) are leaning more my way, and miracle of miracles, my mom actually wants to go back.

So here I sit, thinking I should figure out when we can go back. The only bad thing is that now that we've gone down as a large group (9 of us) I don't know if I want to go back without everyone. That means I'd have to convince my sister that it's time to plan another trip, and I don't know if I want to undertake that effort.

I do believe going back we'd be able to be more low-key than the last time (which is probably just wishful thinking) because everyone has officially been, and been through almost everything on the "should see" list so you could pick and choose.

Anyway, it's going to be 60 today so maybe just going out for a walk at lunchtime will help me shake the longing. But I doubt it.

Man alive, Noah would be having a good time right now. Lots and lots of rain. It's positively floody out there. I spent 20 minutes this morning trying to find and then uncover our backyard drain. I have to do this every year, but normally I don't have to do it in a downpour. Normally I do it when it's relatively dry, but I'm thinking the water isn't even going to go down much because the sewers are already completely flooded and the ground saturated.

I guess I'll find out when I get home how it worked, but this morning I looked out the window and had an "uh oh" moment when I realized there was probably more water out there than I'd seen in the almost 11 years we've been in the house, and I probably shouldn't wait to try to unplug. I estimate that it was at least 10-12 inches deep on top of the drain, which I eventually found. The problem I was having was that the water was so deep that it covered more ground and threw off where I thought it was...it was actually about a foot further back than I estimated. Plus I was trying not to fall in or get mud all over my work clothes. Let's just say it's not how I wanted to spend my morning and leave it at that, 'kay?

Amy over at Living Reflections talked about her recent experience with the sales people at BestBuy (motto: "We will hound you until you break"). She tried to sneak in and buy something without making eye contact with a sales person because they are the retail equivelant of someone trying to sell you a vacation time share. The guy ran up to her at the register with ink and cables! Can you imagine?

Look, I sold PCs retain wayyyyyy back when they first came out. This was back in 87. We had to sell cables with every printer because nobody had cables because nobody had a computer back then. Can I tell you how many extra USB, Serial and Printer cables I have lying around my house? And I was the last person to try to oversell someone, which is why I probably only made 14k that first year. But I knew there weren't people out in the world badmouthing me for selling them something they didn't need. You don't need a 24 pin dot matrix when this IBM 9 pin will do.

Anyway, go check out her rant. I told her that if the printer came with cartridges (and not just the sample ones that print 10 pages) but the guy told her that because he wanted to sell her ink, she should contact the AG because that's illegal. And that, dear people, is why you should steer clear of BestBuy.

GOSH, is there anything like a bad holiday pun? I thought not.

Crappy day for kites, which stinks because that's what I gave each of the kids and it would have been nice to get them up so high that the police arrested us for interfering with local flight patterns. I would have been happy to get mine up more than 15 feet or so, but it was not to be. By the time the wind was picking up a little, it was getting darker and colder. I was so DONE with being outside. 3 hours or so is about my limit when the temp is only 50 or so.

This weekend went by fast. I'd like a do-over. Thanks.

Junior loves Easter - he says it's his favorite holiday. But he loves it for non-religious reasons: he loves hunting for eggs. And it isn't like he's a candy fiend, we still have Halloween candy around here somewhere. For years the Easter Bunny could only bring non-candy stuff to our house. No hollow white chocolate rabbits for us, which is just heartbreaking. How can anyone not like a hollow rabbit with the little tiny sugar eyes?

Well, since receiving an M&M dispenser from my step-kids for Christmas, he now loves M&Ms, so for the first time, the Easter Bunny can probably drop off some chocolate.

This is a good thing.

I learned something today. I learned that just because the package says "Adult Large" on it, doesn't mean that my arms and legs will fit in it. I'm talking about the knee and elbow pads I bought so I could go rollerblading with Junior. They do not fit. I don't think they'll fit Mr. Dump either, but I'm okay with it if they do fit him. I'm not okay with them not fitting me. I decided to jam them on anyway, and put up with the pain of them completely cutting off my circulation for about 15 minutes before I couldn't stand it any more. So now I can't go back blading until I find "Person of Size" Size. Or something. I looked at my legs, and ya, they aren't thin, but I've seen muscular people with big calves too, so what do they have to buy?

Also, the skates stink. I was going to say that maybe it was me, but you know what? I think that maybe there is some connection between the skates only costing $19, and the fact that they don't really roll so much. I think that's something I want on a rollerblade. Rolling action.

Junior is at work with me for a few (he was with my parents because today was a professional development day for the teachers) and he was playing with my Cubes with some new monster thingies Grandma bought him.

Actually, this is what it kind of feels like in a real office:

The dust didn't get me last night, you'll be happy to hear. Neither did the four inches of snow that greeted us this morning. Heads-up, I am now about to start screaming about how bad a job the weather forecasters have done this winter, from not bothering to mention upcoming storms, to totally blowing amounts time after time after time. I'd cut them more slack but I don't recall them ever being this far off on EVERY snowstorm. Plus this one started a good 5 hours after they said it would. Sheesh.

As of yesterday afternoon, we were told to expect a foot or more of snow on one channel, and two inches on another. I don't know about you, but in terms of what that does to your need to shovel and your commute, the difference between two and twelve is enormous. Nobody knows what source we should be listening to anymore because they all contradict each other, so when a co-worker checked the weather yesterday at about 3pm, she got the info from two local TV station websites, and two other websites (I think Yahoo was one) and we all got to decide which sounded the most accurate. Or average them all, which is what I did.

Time after time this winter, we were either shocked at how much more we got than what they predicted, or shook our heads at how much less their was. The storm with 20 inches of snow was, as early as a day and a half earlier, supposed to be a dusting. HELLO?

I don't know if they all changed computer systems for modeling or what, but if they can't be accurate, we're going to need a different way of predicting storms. Go back to the old systems or whatever it was you used to use. They used to be able to predict them more than a day in advance, and actually get the amounts right.

I just saw a link for an in-depth article in the Worcester Telegram that says "Household Dust a Health Concern."

Uh oh.

I read a little further, and learned that my shower curtain could be killing me. Well, okay, not in so many words, but the chemicals used to make it are linked to asthma and male infertility. And the dust in the house contains traces of these chemicals. Same for the chemicals used in non-stick pots and pans. Now I'm not a reactive person, but if this is an excuse for me to replace my 13 year old T-Fal set with the stuff coming off with a brandy-new set of Calphalon anodized pots and pans to match my Everyday Pan, well, I'm going to start those wheels turning. I don't want to eat or breath scraped-off non-stick coating.

Of course, most of the toxic chemical dust in our house comes from cleaning products. So then there's the age old dilemma - do I avoid cleaning and keep out chemicals, or do I clean to remove the toxic dust? (I know, I know, there are chemical free products. But the smell of Simple Green gives me the dry heaves (literally) so it's not that easy. Actually, I like Kaboom, which is supposed to be low-chemical. I think. Maybe it's time for more research.)

All joking aside, one thing a woman in the article says that actually shocked me is that "There is a high incidence of autism, asthma and autoimmune illness in our community" and "about 28 percent of the children in Leominster are experiencing learning disabilities."

Whaaaaat? I have never heard this, and I don't know what research out there backs up this statement. I know about the unbelievably high incidence of autism, especially in children whose parents who grew up in the vicinity of the old Foster Grant plant. I heard specifically the neighborhood of my old elementary school, which had a stream running behind it that may have had factory runoff, making the kids playing near it the equivalent of the 3-eyed nuclear power plant fish in the Simpsons.

But 28 percent have learning disabilities? I'd like to know where this number is coming from, and when it all started. Because I grew up here and I'd say that the number was nowhere NEAR that when I was a kid, and I don't personally know of any other kids (via daycare, preschool, kindergarten, baseball, soccer, etc.) with those problems. Not that the kids aren't out there, but 28 percent would indicate that I'd have run into quite a few of those kids by now.

Anyway, back to the main point - I have to decide whether or not to let the dust in my house continue to pile up. I'm leaning toward "yes."

Sunday night we were passing through Littleton and stopped at the Donelan's on the main drag down near the center of town (what is that, 2A, right?).

Junior spotted watermelon in the produce area, and I agreed to buy some for him. We cut into it tonight, and I would be lying if I told you I'd bought better watermelon at any time last summer. This was AMAZING and it took all our willpower to not demolish the whole thing tonight. This was seedless too, which means I can just give him whole slices to take with his lunch tomorrow.

If I lived closer, I'd run back over there and buy them out, I swear. Here's what this baby looked like when it was almost all carved up. Just looking at this makes me want to go grab another piece out of the fridge.

Okay, so now that I am officially an important voice of my generation, I would just like to welcome you all here and offer you some leftover Girl Scout Cookies. I know what you're thinking. "What is a leftover Girl Scout Cookie?" Right. Because such a thing does not normally exist in our universe. But I swear, they are GSCs and they are leftover. Actually, what happened is last year I hid a box and I didn't actually find them until recently. I think it was last year. It might have been 2003. But I think they're still good, because they aren't green.

Okay, so now that we're all cozy, I suppose I should take a poll about some of the things you find important, because as your official voice, I should know those things and be able to speak about them. Right? That's part of the job description, no? If the list is good, maybe I'll give it a whole chapter of my groundbreaking book of humorous essays that you are all going to be buying and distributing, along with the 2006 Magnetic Poetry Calendar with the June page proudly featuring my poem. So really, what I'm doing for you, in addition to being your voice, is helping you do all your holiday shopping 9 months early. No need to thank me, I can just see the gratitude in your smiling faces.

Whew. This is hard work. It's a lot more responsibility than I thought. Can you guys pass the cookies?

You know what is seriously ticking me off right now? That nowhere, and I mean nowhere, am I referenced as "an important voice of [my] generation." What the hell is up with that oversight? What do I have to do to fix this problem, anyway?

I'm going to write a book, and damn it, each and every one of you is going to buy 10 copies. You will send them out to people you know who live in foreign places west of 495 (like, even maybe Indiana or someplace freaky like that). Do you hear me? You people are just not holding up your end of the partnership!

You'd think I'd learn by now...every time we buy something new for Junior, he becomes obsessed with it. So maybe we should have given it a little more thought before we kitted him out in full rollerblade gear. Because he has hounded us non-stop since we bought the stuff.

I would just tell him to go out in the driveway, but our driveway is a hill (I HATE THAT) so no-go. So we'd have to go somewhere (even further down the street) to actually use them, and quite frankly, my world doesn't revolve around rollerblading.

Yet. Cause I bought some cheap ones for twenty bucks at Target yesterday, along with all the pads, but I need to find a helmet before I can put these things on. I think I'll be able to handle them, ones I get my skate legs. I learned how to rollerskate when I was a Brownie, and we all took lessons at the Whalom Roller Rink. Man, was that a long time ago, or what? I can still picture every little detail of the inside of that place, including the "control tower" with the big organ in it. I'd love a chance to go in that building and look around right now. I assume it's gutted, as they used it for Flea Markets for a while after closing the rink. I'd also love a chance to walk around inside Whalom Park - peek in the buildings, take some pictures. I know that's not possible, unless whoever owns it (I've lost track) reads this and wants to be my hero. You call me, I'm ready to go on a moment's notice.

Anyway, funny how we all skated with NOTHING to protect us and now we have knee, wrist and elbow guards to go with our helmets. What I think I'm going to need is a butt guard. Anyone know where they sell those?

Note to the person who sent me a private email regarding a post I made last fall:

I consider what you sent threatening email. As such, I am considering sending it to AOL's abuse department (I have already called them about the process, but did not forward them the email so they can act on it) and the local police department. I am not sure why you think it is okay to write to me personally because you don't like my opinion about a politician. You know what? In America, people are allowed to voice displeasure over elected officials. You, on the other hand, are not allowed to email veiled threats against that person and their family. Trust me when I tell you that one of the only ways I will NOT contact AOL (who do not take kindly to this sort of thing), the person you are "defending" and the local authorities is if you apologize and use your REAL NAME when doing so.

I'm sure you weren't thinking rationally when you sent it, and this is your opportunity to put an end to this before it gets escalated.

[Update: Oh honeybunch, I know who you are now. You may want to consider my kind offer.]

It's going to be 45 tomorrow! Can you believe anyone on earth is excited about 45? Tells you what it's been like around here. I'm going to ignore the fact that WXLO told me there might be snow Sunday because I'd have to go put a flaming bag of dogpoop on the weatherman's front steps, y'know? Sunday is the first day of Spring. Leave us alone! Go away with your snow!

So I am soliciting ideas for fun things to do on a warmish day when the ground is still covered with snow. I have cheese money, so any suggestion is a valid one! Except for maybe something like swimming at the beach. Because we aren't insane, okay? But hmmm. Maybe a nice cup of chowdah in Portsmouth?

Okay, it's been a while since I posted links to sites that have earned my praise.

These are all work and family-friendly (well, the first one is unless you enter a search term that gets questionable results. But that would hardly be my fault.

Grant Robinson Online - He's got a link to a project that makes a montage out of images it finds from a Google Search of a term you enter. (This is the one you need to think about before you choose your term. Mr. Dump Tried "Staples" as in the store and got a lot of images of post-surgery wounds. )

J B Brown's Serious LEGO - Extreme LEGO creations, including one that will, if you can believe it, solve a Rubik's Cube. I'm bummed because the link to the video is broken. I wanted to see it in action, but you can view notes and pictures.

How Much Is Inside - the website that dares to ask the question "How Much is Inside?" (Could you see that coming?) You want to know how much toothpaste is in a tube? How many CDs you can label with a single Sharpie? This is the place for you. Also, do not blame me if you lose hours of your life wandering around this site reading things like how he created a Jenga Halloween costume. I will not be responsible for you losing your job or your dinner reservations.

Yesterday's post about the DaVinci Code was a barn burner. 11 comments at last count, which may be a new world, er, dump record. Especially because none of them were spam. Another dump record.

It's St. Patrick's Day today and crisis was averted when Junior realized he wasn't wearing any green about 2 seconds before we left for the bus stop. You see, if I forget to wear green, well, nobody cares. But when you are in first grade, this is the kind of thing that can ruin your day. That's the cool thing about elementary school, if you ask me. That love of celebrating anything and everything (as long as it isn't Halloween, Easter or Christmas, because, well, we won't go there, right?). I'm sure there's going to be something green to eat and drink today. And stories about pots of gold and lucky clover.

Here at work? Not so much.

[Warning: Rant ahead]

Nothing gets the old heart pumping faster than reading about Cardinal Bertone with his knickers in a twist over a work of fiction. Apparently, Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code is dangerous to idiot Catholics all over the globe who are confusing fiction with truth. Instead of ranting and raving about Brown and his book, why don't you worry about things that are actually important, sir? I can think of many MANY things going on in the world today that you should be focusing your energy on. It's FICTION. To call it "rotten fruit" is subjective at best, but to actually take the stance that it is a "sackful of lies" is well, um, er, *cough* sort of how one might choose to actually define fiction. So way to pick something to take a stand on. It's right up there with Dan Quayle attacking the sit-com Murphy Brown for glamorizing single motherhood.

But you go, sir. You fight the good fight, and all the people dying of starvation, and the ones dying of AIDs (cause heaven forbid they be allowed to use condoms) will just take care of themselves.

I just posted the new Still Life With Interview. Actually, there are two new ones because apparently I never pressed the publish button for the french fry one. D'oh! So go have fun!

Mr. Dump sent me a link to an article that said five of the Red Sox just taped an episode of Queer Eye. I cannot tell you how much I am looking forward to seeing this. And no, before some of you start to hyperventilate, they didn't make Damon cut his hair.

So I sent him back a link to a humorous article about how any piece of classic literature can be made better by adding Kevin Millar.

And so, I share with all of you, too.

We saw Robots Sunday night and I enjoyed all the previews. Everyone in our group turned to look at Mr. Dump when they showed the preview for the Jimmy Fallon/Drew Barrymore movie Fever Pitch about the obsessed Red Sox fan. Actually, because a lot of it was filmed during actual games last season, the cameramen would always show us when they were filming in the stands, so I feel more connected to that movie. Plus it includes the road to the World Series. Hey, it's about the Red Sox, so it has to be good, right?

We are also now looking forward to seeing the new Herbie movie. It actually looks really perfect for seven year old boys. And of course, the new Star Wars Trailer. So far, so good.

Oh, my thoughts on Robots: Amazing to look at. You forget it's animation half the time. But I just can't give it more than a B, and I can't even put my finger on why. Maybe the story was a little too thin, and the script a little too light on jokes and heavy on Robin Williams. Wayyyy too heavy on Robin Williams. I love the guy, but I didn't know he'd have every other line in the movie. So yes, see it. There are two scenes that will make you say "wow" and I actually preferred the one that they aren't hawking as The Greatest Animated Scene Ever Filmed (or whatever they are saying. Sheesh.). If you've seen it, I'm talking about the scene at Bigwell's house. I thought THAT was the coolest scene in the movie.

One last thought: my son doesn't want to wear the gloves that make his hands "smell like boots." I totally agree with him.

Of all the Blue things in my life, Blue Man Group is right up there on the list. We had a GREAT night on Friday, and the kids were all thrilled.

Now I'm not a formal reviewer, and I don't know them well enough to even comment on that particular show, but I laughed through the whole thing, thought it was a great performance (with no flaws that I could see). Having one of the Blue Men stand next to me shining a flashlight in my face and then having one climb on the back of Junior's chair didn't hurt one bit.

We have a DirecTV freeview of The Complex stored on the TiVo from last year, and we have watched it a LOT of times. We bought the soundtrack and have worn the sucker out. All the kids love it. So if they had just played music the whole time, I would have been thrilled. I told Mr. Dump if you want to create the absolute perfect show for me, it will be equal parts drumming and tap dancing. Riverstomp. Luckily, the non-musical parts of the show are captivating, and family-friendly. (Junior was thrilled to find the Blue Men waiting at the bottom of the stairs as we left, because "he touched my ear!")

Talking about it at a dinner party on Saturday (with my BIL, who had the pleasure of being the guy chosen to be the human paintbrush/guy with head in gelatin a few years ago) I guess much of what we saw was "old" stuff, even though the radio commercials for the show said it was new. Well, it was new to me, but if you've seen them before, it sounds like you shouldn't expect all new stuff. I'd say what's the same, but that would spoil it for folks who've never been.

Anyway, I'd go again in a minute. Loved it. (And Mr. Dump got a great parking space so bang-zoom, we were on our way and home by 10pm. Not bad.)

Okay, so there's a new DumpMobile in the old driveway these days - a Saturn Vue. It came with 3 months of free XM radio, which we are enjoying more than you can imagine.

Interesting XM stuff from this evening:
- listening to Orlando traffic and weather while tooling around the pules of snow from yesterday's storm is damned depressing.
- I had no idea they made a real song out of "Smelly Cat". Thanks, XM Kids! (116)

Additionally, I want to show you pictures from yesterday to show exactly why the Orlando weather thing is sad. Here I present the Pillsbury Snow Boy, followed by his sister taking a hit.

...will you sing along? Blue Man Group tonight, baby! How excited am I? Well, let's just say that like Tobias on Arrested Development, I may just paint myself blue, baby!

Of course, then nobody would talk to me. Would that be so bad, though?

No more cat shootings in the news, so maybe my suggestions saved some lives. I'm happy to provide this level of service to my loyal fans.

Saw this headline on Yahoo this morning, and thought to myself "Oh, you know every cat on the planet is jealous." I think it was premeditated. If it had been a dog, well, duh, they're just big and clumsy. But a cat...no. I think the cat was looking for an opening. Far be it for me to wonder why the guy had a loaded gun on the kitchen counter. Maybe it was meant for shooting the squirrels he was cooking for dinner.

But the cat - he had probably been looking for an opening like this for months, and he took it.

That will teach Mr. Stanton to serve Friskies instead of Fancy Feast. And hey, a new toy every once in a while wouldn't be a bad idea!

(Okay, I am going to go write this up as an interview for the Daily Probe. I'll let you know if he uses it.)

I was staring at my sandels this morning. I picked one up and held it for a moment, and gave it a big hug as tears filled my eyes.

"I miss you so..." I told it, my voice barely a whisper.

I could tell that my sandels understood, and felt the same way. We promised each other that we would spend time together as soon as humanly possible.

I quote from the Weather dudes at the National Weather Service. On top of the 10 or so inches we're expecting:

"These frigid temperatures to cause the wind chill index to drop tobetween 15 and 22 degrees below zero. At these wind chill readings...exposed flesh will freeze in as little as 30 minutes. The snow will make roadways slick...so motorists are urged to drivewith extra caution. Practice your winter safety rules by keeping a flashlight...food...and water in your car in case of emergency.if you must be outdoors...wear many layers of clothing...a hat...gloves...and cover any other exposed skin."

Ya baby! Spring is in the air!

Is it not bad enough that I haven't been able to check my email for over 24 hours (48 hours since any went to my SideKick), but now I type up a whole blog entry and blogger eats it?

Is the whole world falling apart around me?

Next thing you know the bus won't stop for my son, and I will somehow get tea on one of my socks.

Oh wait, that happened already.

So what's next? 10 inches of snow?

Oh.

I think over the course of the first three days I had the pedometer I totaled 10,000 steps. So no, I'm not that close. But I think if I had been doing 10000 I would be much thinner, so it isn't that much of a surprise to me.

Today it went above freezing and I decided to take a quick walk at lunchtime to boost the numbers. My pedometer is cool because if you walk more than 60 steps a minute for over 10 minutes, it counts them (and the duration) in a separate "aerobic steps" category. So I did 2730 aerobic steps in 25 minutes. I've got half my steps in for the whole day right now. I would have walked for longer, but it started raining on me and I didn't have a hat or an umbrella. Oh well, I'm just happy I finally got some aerobic steps registered!

Until it gets warmer out, I just don't know how I'm going to hit 10k. I hate walking in the cold, I really do. Plus we've still got snow in the forecast this week. Oy.

Oh man, I am not happy with Junior's bus driver this morning. I will spare you all the details, but let's just say that she was running a few minutes earlier than usual and as we were halfway down the driveway, she drove past us. I screamed at him to run, and we took off up the street, where she was stopping to pick up this other little girl. I screamed "Hold the bus!" to this little girl, who was staring at us, and as we neared the back of the bus, with me staring into the side rear-view mirror, the bus driver drove away from us. Now at least a dozen kids on the bus saw us running, either down the driveway (as I waved my arms) or as we trailed the bus. Did none of them say anything? Or did the she-devil bus driver ignore them all? My co-worker is of the opinion that she DID see us running in the mirror and chose to ignore us. (I ran far to the side to try to be in her view). Or else she doesn't use her mirrors which is a bigger problem, as far as I'm concerned. What if my son had run ahead of me and was standing right next to the bus when she turned? She could have hit him.

I'm pissed. I'll say it. I'll take some of the blame for not being at our stop on time, but I will NOT take the blame for her not seeing us running up the street. I'm a fat woman in a bright red coat, for God's sake. A blind person would have seen me coming.

So lets get your votes, shall we? Did she ignore us on purpose or not?

Ya, ya, it's March. I have a calendar. The weather dudes tell us that almost every day this week should have snow showers. Faaaaaantastic.

I'm tired of winter. I snub my nose at winter. So Junior and I took one of the kites outside this afternoon while it snowed around us. I have photo evidence of a) us flying a kite and b) the snow.

Okay, my first full day with my new pedometer, and I've hit 2306 by noon. That's good and bad. Good because at least it's not 200. Bad because I have to do that three more times to hit the "10000 a day" you're supposed to do for heart health and weight loss.

Now I know that I could take the long way around the building to stuff, and go out for an extra walk and easily hit 10k, but I'm trying to see what a "normal " day is for me. As in, how many extra steps on top of my normal hike to the building from the parking lot, and hike from my desk to the cafeteria will I need to add to my day. I told someone I guessed I would get somewhere between 6000 and 7000 without any extra work. Now that it's noon and I see my current total, I may have to downgrade that to 5000 because I've already done two of my three trips to the cafeteria for the day. And round trip that's 500 or so steps. Add the steps back to the car (400, I think?) and either I have to make many many many trips to the printer and the bathroom this afternoon, or I'm going to have an embarrassingly low total.

Let's see, there was something else I was going to mention. Crap, what was it? I'm sure it was something good so that Adam would put me back on the home page of Universal Hub. Ever since he canned Boston-Common I haven't made his home page once. I need to go out and get a news story about Charlestown, apparently.

I ordered a mess of kites from the fatbraintoys.com website a few weeks back, and got them about a week ago, but obviously haven't been able to do anything with them yet, what with all the snow and below freezing temperatures. And aside from my personal comfort, I have the nagging suspicion that kites do better in warm air than cold air. (I am not a scientist. Do not mock me if I'm completely wrong about this.)

I got a follow-up email from them yesterday saying something like "By now, you've probably had a chance to try out your kite, and we'd love to hear your feedback."

Sure, throw it in my face that I haven't been able to use my new sleddy sled kite, ya boogerheads. At this rate, I figure by April we may have a frostbite free day or two to give one a spin.

Well, for once I'm happy with my bank - BankNorth.

Congrats on giving Boston back "The Garden". I'm glad you guys are using the common sense God gave you.

Althought I don't know what the "TD" stands for, and will never use it when referring to the BankNorth Garden.

I loved the commercial I heard on the radio this morning. It told us to put Scott's Step 1 on our lawns "right now" except for the small problem of a foot of snow out there and the temperature not scheduled to go over freezing for the next week or two.

I don't have snow tires on my spreader, anyway.

So people, for the love of all that is frozen, don't do that.

I'm stuck on the rt 117 on-ramp to 495 because of the accident at 495. This should be fun.

Kenny Loggins, if you are reading this, please explain to me why the full Leap Of Faith CD isn't available for download from any of my normal sources (iTunes, MusicMatch, Walmart.com). I have the case for it but lost the CD (or it was in the CD case that was stolen) and I am WILLING to pay to replace it but the whole CD isn't available for download! What the hell is up with that?

Ya, I'm angry. So I have to pay more to buy it at the store than I would to download it? I already have the case and the liner notes, thank you. I just need to burn a cd. Sheesh. So you know what? I'll just go without. And maybe you'll figure out how to get the whole danged CD up on the download sites. *sigh*

When I got home last night, Junior had a new boo-boo to show me. Now I wouldn't have thought this possible, but then again, maybe I don't like potato chips as much as he does. The boy...bit his own finger while eating chips, enough to make it bleed and maybe remove a little piece of skin. I cannot fathom doing this, but he did. So then we have to make sure it's VERY clean and has some good ointment on it because I'm guessing a human bite is just asking for trouble.

I think they put the chips away after that.

Okay, I'm going to do it. I decided on my New Year's Resolution, and it only took me two months. Maybe I can declare March 1st as Dumpy New Year. The Chinese have their own Calendar, maybe I can have one too!

So I read an article on the web about how if you take 10,000 steps a day, you'll be healthier and lose weight. As someone who just cannot join a gym and actually use it, this sounds like it's right up my alley. When I used to belong to a gym I would set the treadmill for twenty minutes but then switch to the calories burned view. After twenty minutes I often stayed on trying to round up the calorie numbers. And then do the "well, I can do another 10 calories" or whatever. Time didn't work for me - but mileage and calories burned did.

So I ordered a pedometer from Amazon - doing research into the ones recommended by other people, etc., and I decided on the Omron HJ112 Premium. I'll let you know what I think.