The Big DumpTruck

I am a lazy fart. I'm okay with that. So it's July 22nd, but my watch says it's the 21st, because June only has 30 days, and my watch has 31 numbers. So on July 1st I was supposed to move the date ahead a day. Except I didn't. And I haven't yet. It's easier to look at it and add a day - at least, that's what I keep telling myself.

So I got to thinking: if I never adjusted the date manually again, how long will it take for my watch to show the correct date again. And bonus question, how long would it stay correct? You may answer in the comments. Oh, and I haven't actually figured out the right answer yet because that involves math and what the hell do you people expect from me, anyway?

Labels: fun, quiz

The bad news is that I'm not going to have time to do any car shopping this week. The good news is that I'm done shopping and pick up the new hotness on Tuesday. The mom-mobile will be traded in to find love with some other family. Now that it's mostly just me and the boy in the car, I didn't really need a 7 passenger mini-van. I'm back to a sedan, and I'm actually pretty happy about it. I loved my van (a Sienna LE) but it was just tooooo big to a commuter car. I will keep you in the dark until I have a picture of the new wheels.

The boy is also scheduled for some Jimmy Fund baseball games - 6 between now and August 1st. So practice tomorrow and a game on Thursday. And my nephew's All Star game is tonight, so it's a Very Special Baseball Week. Oh, and the dentist on Wednesday. They are going to yell at me for not taking Junior to see an orthodontist, but you know what? The kid hasn't lost or gained ANY new teeth in the past 2 years. He's waaaaaay behind and they aren't going to do anything for him. But I promise, this summer, we'll go see someone. One of you remind me, okay?

So that's about it for the sort-of-mundane portion of the post. I'm sorry it had to be like this. I did play a rousing round of frolf last night. Wait, you don't know what frolf is? Do you have a GameCube or a Wii? You do? Okay, go find this game. It's called RibbitKing. It's a strange little game that at its peak was pretty much only ten bucks. It is one of my favorite games ever. It's sort of like golf but it involves aliens hitting things that make frogs fly. There's more too it but I haven't had any coffee yet. Actually, here are links to the Playstation2 version of the game and the GameCube version of the game.

Labels: baseball, fun, games

Ode to the Wrong Shoes

I wore the wrong shoes today
Right color, wrong brand
My eyes were tired and blurred
when I reached into the closet
hoping for the best
I found them by touch
and at first glance
saw brown shoes and ended my search.
The cuffs of my pants hang lovingly
against the top
But Wait!
These are the Wrong Shoes
They are not my really comfy Merrills
They are tight
and my big toe feels crushed
defeated
stupid brown shoes
you will pay for your sneakiness and
your harm to my toe
with your life.

Labels: fun, poetry

I have a few days away from work. I don't know if I'll be able to figure out what to do with myself. I would lie to you all and say I'm going to enjoy some Jody-time but you know that's not true. I have a lot of things that I've needed to catch up on, including processing video from Junior's two concerts, continuing cleaning my room (One Bag at a Time(r)).

I think maybe I should take up a new hobby in my five days. I could learn a new language, or maybe learn the hula. I'd rather be in Hawaii for that one though, and five days isn't enough to deal with the jet lag. I'll try to become a new me in the next five days. I'll be sure to introduce myself when I get back.

Labels: fun, Vacation

I declare 2009 The Year That Jody Has Enough Money to Buy Things and Go on Vacations She Totally Doesn't Need. That's right, I'm saying that 2009 needs to be "the year of excess cash". So, contact me offline and I'll give you my mailing address so the checks can start coming. It's not tax deductible, but really, should that make a difference? Think about me, Jody. I don't own a single pair of cowboy boots. I have never slept in a castle. Seasonal window treatments don't just buy themselves, my friends. Any leftover cash (HA! HAHA!) will be used to pay down credit card debt. Or to buy a different pair of eyeglass frames for each day of the week.

Thank you for supporting The Year That Jody Has Enough Money.

Labels: fun, money, shopping

I was going to attempt to give you guys a link a day for the December Advent season, as my gift to you. But I forgot to do it Monday and Tuesday and now it seems late.

So I will pass along one of the cooler links I've run into recently. It's a Hubble Telescope Advent calendar. Man oh man, space photos blow me away, ever time. I snipped the url for you, but it points to Boston.com

http://snipurl.com/coolsky

Labels: fun, holidays

Today was the day...Junior picked up the phone all by his lonesome and called my sister to ask her if she wanted to go apple picking. I can't say I was upset, given that I love going apple picking more than I even like eating the apples after I've picked them. As I mentioned on Twitter earlier today, there was an unbelievable bumper crop of apples...more than I've seen in ages. We literally could have filled the bags on just the trees right next to the stand where you traded in your first born for a bag to fill. (Ya, it's more expensive to buy an empty bag you have to fill yourself; on the other hand, my kid personally consumed about a pound of apples while we walked around.

I have a handful of some of the more interesting photos of the day up on flickr...

Labels: autumn, fall, fun

Junior plays in the City Championship for Little League Baseball tonight. I think it would be REALLY cool if they won. I mean, who doesn't go into these things hoping for a win. I've never been on a team that won a championship. Thinking back to my Lassie League days, I was on the team that got stuck with all the strays. There was one girl who quite literally could not figure out how to swing the bat. What's weird is that I can totally see the faces of some of these girls in my head, and we're talking about not seeing them for 30+ years. Just as long as you don't ask me their names, we'll be good, I think.

Thanks to everyone who donated to Junior's Jimmy Fund fundraising efforts, whether in person or on the Jimmy Fund website. You people rock, seriously. North Leominster Little League had 4 teams playing in the tournament (at various levels) at raised a total of $15,000. I think that's very cool. I should not be hitting you up for anything here in the foreseeable future. Wait, no, I think I'll start accepting pastry donations. Please, help support the, uh, American Pastry Association, with your kind contributions of pie, cake, danish, brownies and cookies. The APA is a fine and worthy cause, and, um, fresh, homemade pastry (or one of those big danish rings from the Dutch Kitchen) is greatly appreciated. Remember our motto - The APA: Fill Our Your Piehole!

Labels: baseball, food, fun, pie

Photo take today at Strawbery Banke, Portsmouth NH, as Mr. Dump made every effort on the planet to give me a typical touristy vacation day. They have some old-fashioned toys available for today's modern child to try out. Junior was VERY taken with rolling a hoop and trying to get the little wooden ball into the cup. (Shades of Stewie Griffin, anyone?)

He was also very taken with the Jacob's Ladder toy. Seriously, we were amused by how much he loved these hundred + year-old toys. I could trade in a bunch of his video games and buy some little wooden toys. I'll bet that would go over really well.

Actually, this is a kid whose most valuable possession is a beat-to-hell blue plastic bat. So wooden toys might be good.

Please note the blinding sunlight in this photo (actually screwed up most of my photos so I have to add fill light in post-processing). After we grabbed a traditional Irish Pub [late] lunch at Molly Malone's (Mr. Dump had bangers and mash, nuff said.) we headed home - into the worst thunderstorm so far this summer. And that's saying something. I'm waiting for the power to go off.

Labels: fun, junior, Vacation

The cool thing about forgetting something, is that unless you are trying to remember it, you have no idea that you forgot it. In many cases, forgetting something is a blessing, because you probably should not have had the piece of information locked in your head anyway.
Case in point: Tuesday night on the way back from a brutal baseball game (18-13 them, although we should have kicked their butts but what are you going to do. They basically stole home about 12 times on passed balls. Not a fun evening.) and Mr. Dump mentioned that he'd brought up a singer to one of the player's grandfather, who didn't really remember the singer. And I mentioned "what about that other guy...." and completely blanked.
The funny thing is that I could totally picture him. I had the hair and the mustache burned into my brain, but his name, a name I had used about a billion times in the long ago as my humorous go-to guys, had escaped. Couldn't remember it. Mr. Dump couldn't remember it.
This morning, I did a Google search sort of describing him, and I got some false leads, but a name in one of the false leads reminded me of this guy's name, and now it's stuck back in my head again.
Can anyone guess the answer? Here are your clues - you'll have to click this link to get the answer, you buncha cheaters.
1. 70's television commercial star
2. Elvis hair (not "elvish", Elvis)
3. kickin' mustache

Labels: fun, music, quiz

I have reached the alarmed point in the summer...July is almost over, all 500 days of it, and I have not yet done anything X-treme. As you all know, normally by now I have done enough X-treme activities that I am left happy and content for the rest of the year. But I have not jumped off any buildings, ridden any rocket sleds, or roller bladed down an interstate holding on to the back of a semi. None of those things. No being shot out of a cannon, flagpole sitting or being set on fire for a movie stunt. Nothing. I have done the drone-like "go to work" thing and then the "go watch your kid play baseball" thing, but at no point did I wrestle sharks or attach balloons to a lawn chair and to go for a celestial spin.
I feel like the entire month of July was just a waste, and now I'm going to be all mopey because that's a month I'll never ever get back. I completely blew it.

Labels: fun, summer

Everyone out there is posting stuff about iPhone applications, so I thought I should do the same because if you know me, you know I like to be completely and utterly trendy. It's almost a genetic thing. That and my need to wear comfortable shoes. Now I can already hear you saying "but Jody, the need to be completely trendy and the need to wear comfortable shoes cancel each other out!" You know, for some people, that would be true. But I can be completely trendy AND wear comfortable shoes and they do NOT cancel each other out. That's how awesome I am.

So here is my pick for the absolute best free iPhone app. The runners-up, More Cowbell and SimStapler, were very worthy opponents. I'm guessing tens of thousands of people out there did not know they needed an iPhone application that allowed them to make a cowbell sound, followed by Christopher Walken saying "I need more cowbell".

As for SimStapler, well, where else can you go if you have an urgent need to pretend to staple something? Nowhere I tell you! SimStapler does it all! It pretends to staple, and keeps count of how many pretend staples you've done! Perfect!

But to get all serious, the true winner here, in the "I can't believe it's free" category, is AOL Radio. All kidding aside, this app (which I've run on Mr. Dump's 1st generation iPhone so it doesn't need the 3G) gives you access to dozens of radio stations, to listen to live over your iPhone. There are some custom AOL set up stations (comedy, trance, and my favorites, One Hit Wonders and All 80s.) If you hear something you like, you can mark it as a favorite and/or go pull it up in AOL Music (where you can learn more about the song/artist) or iTunes to buy it. You can set favorite stations to find them quickly. And big bonus, it carries some terrestrial local stations, so you can listen to WBCN anywhere.

There are some limitations if you aren't on wifi or 3g, according to the iTunes site, but don't let that stop you. If you have an iPhone and haven't grabbed AOL Radio, go do it now.

Labels: fun, iPhone, music

I apologize for the missing blog posts. I was, uh....passed out from being closed up in a room with too much writing on the white boards. Which is not entirely untrue. I was closed up in a room, and there was too much writing, but most of it was on those ginormous Post-It Flip Charts.

Note to the white board marker people: There is no need to add scent to these things. The black marker doesn't smell like chocolate mint. Please just stop it.

So the other day I thought of a "truth" that I figured nobody would buy. Those are the good ones, aren't they? The problem is coming up with the other truth and the lie, enough to make them all sound plausible. Ready? Here we go.

1. I own four pair of green pants.
2. The song listed as having the most plays on my iPod is "Banjo Boy".
3. My boss's boss squeezed my "squishy stress dog" so hard it exploded on him, covering him with pink liquid.

Labels: fun, lies

Is there anything more one needs to say about a hand-made version of Kitt? The lights were on in front and it was talking to us. It sounded like William Daniels, but I don't know if it was. I think it would be funny to load it up with stuff Daniels said on a show other than Knight Rider, like St. Elsewhere and Saved by the Bell...

The Spinners game was great - a very close game that almost went into extra innings but for a lovely sacrifice fly that meant we got to go home before the clouds that threatened us all evening finally broke open. It literally did not start to rain until we got in the car, which made the whole endeavor a complete success.

Labels: car, fun

It's everybody's favorite way to spend Thursday afternoon...two truths and a lie! In no particular order:

• I have an endless loop video of the gerbils running on a photo frame in my cubicle.
• I used the last square of toilet paper this morning
• I was given a pyramid paperweight at work yesterday.

Additionally, the following is true: I just took my shoes off because I was wearing kicky little sandals that effectively destroyed the side of my pinky toe. I brought some Keds with me in a bag and I put them on, even though I'm not supposed to wear sneakers at work. I have decided that no matter what happens, I'm not going to leave my cube for the rest of the day so that it won't be an issue.

Labels: fun, quiz

[*Updated to fix the broken links*]

I rule. I now have the Mr. Deity theme song as my ringtone, just like Mr. Deity does (except when he has Elton John's "The Bitch is Back").

"Who is Mr. Deity?" you ask?

Mr. Deity may be the greatest thing since sliced bread. If you really want a behind the scenes look at what it's like to be The Deity and to create the heavens and earth and whether or not we're really supposed to take Sundays off, you should hike over to the Mr. Deity site and either watch the copies there or download the podcast to take it with you wherever you go on your video-enabled iPod.

I'm still floored that something this good is available for free.

Labels: fun, humor, link, video

Saw this at the mall last night when I was running an errand. Hard to tell if it was coming or going, but I assume it's up for the Mother's Day crowd.

For the record, I do not want to go to a mall parking lot carnival for Mother's Day. Sure, I'm a fan of mall parking lot carnivals in general, but not for Mother's Day. Those are for Father's Day.

Labels: fun, holidays, photos, weather

Okay, all the cool kids probably knew this, but I'm a Hall of Famer. I'm a rock star. I'm a goodness-to-gracious web celeb. CMonks added me to his Hall of Fame over at Utter Wonder today.

This is the moment I've been dreaming of ever since I realized that you can't be Miss America if you are older than 30 and have been married for 15 years. Well, I hit 15 years in 2 weeks, but you get my point.

I said to myself, "Self, if you can't be Miss America, or be one of the kids who gets to be on the box of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, you could at least be in the Hall of Fame at Utter Wonder because he has absolutely no requirements other than that you ask. And I can do that! I'm a good asker!"

So there I am.

And for the record, I do like dolphins. They are cool. Not as cool as rhinos, but hey, what is?

Labels: award, fun, websites

Here is the part of the website where I try to entertain you by making up a story and trying to convince you it's absolutely true. Well, I will place two true "truthiness nuggets" in the story, and your job will be to try to determine which those are.

I was eating lunch at Johnny Rockets at the Burlington Mall when I realized I'd left my wallet in the car. This was not cool because, well, Mrs. Rocket was staring at me with a bill in her hand and I couldn't very well tell her that I did not have any money. I scanned the restaurant to see if I knew anybody, and was shocked and amazed to see Mike Lowell eating a #12 with his family. It turns out Mike is a big fan of the "red red sauce" that they put on the #12, and he often eats there four or five times a week. Now me, if I was a big famous sports star, I would ask if they could hook me up with a bottle of the stuff, but maybe he just enjoys spending quality time at the mall. You never know.
But you thought I was going to ask Mike if he could cover my bill for me, right? Wrong. I could not do that. But what I could do is ask Mike if he was interested in buying my watch from me. It's a Timex Ironman Triathlon watch with Indiglo, so you can tell what time it is in the dark. I told him I'd sell it to him for $19.65, which covered my bill plus a hearty 10% tip. (Only 10% because Mrs. Rockets forgot to bring me my fries and she forced me to do the ketchup all by myself instead of doing the first pour for me. Beeatch.
Mike inspected the watch for wear and tear and told me he'd give me a full twenty for it, which was fantastic. I didn't want to give Mrs. Rockets the extra 35 cents, but I felt it would be awkward to ask her for it. But then, Mike Lowell paid for the watch using giant handfuls of change. I'm not even sure how he got all that change into his pockets. He may have been carrying it in some sort of man bag. And you should totally not make fun of him for carrying a man bag because on him it would look very very cool, unless it had some kind of Hello Kitty design on it. I'm not saying he's partial to Hello Kitty, but really, could you blame the man? It's so damned cute!
So I handed Mrs. Rockets the twenty, and thanked her for a lovely meal. On the way out of the restaurant I noticed they had a giant gumball machine. I love gumballs, and couldn't believe I'd just tossed away that extra thirty five cents. All I needed for a gumball was twenty five cents, you see. So I made eye contact with Mike Lowell again and nodded toward the gumball machine. He got up from his table and came over to me, and used his manly baseball muscles to push over the huge gumball machine like it was so many Q-Tips. The ball on top shattered, and hundreds of gumballs flooded the entryway to Johnny Rockets. I gave Mike Lowell and thankful nod and as I grabbed a handful of gumballs, careful to avoid the ones with glass in them, I whispered "until next time."

Labels: fun, Mike Lowell, Red_Sox, restaurants

I am a happy girl. I have in front of me

1. My MacBook Pro with a wireless connection to the internet
2. a cup of coffee that Mr. Dump made from whole Dunkin Donuts beans ground by the coffeemaker right before brewing
   
3. a bowl of Special K Red Berries

All of these things made more special because I am enjoying my breakfast for the first time out on the deck. Goodbye, winter, don't let the door hit you on the way out.

Labels: food, fun, spring

We could skip the candy if you would just bring me a warm, sunny day. I realize that Easter is way early this year, so normally we're dealing with April temps instead of March ones, but still, I have certain expectations about Easter that just aren't going to be met.

Historically (and I mean back when I was a kid through recent years with my kid) after Easter dinner we would get in the car and drive over to the Leominster State Forest and look for salamanders and fish. I know, seems silly, but you must know, Easter Bunny, that you were the one who would bring us the butterfly nets that we used to catch the salamanders. You do remember that, don't you?

We took all the kids (and when I say that I'm referring to my son, niece and nephew) to the park a couple of times to either throw a frisbee, a baseball, or fly a kite. All things I do not want to do tomorrow because it's going to be too cold. So I'll ask again; instead of sugary stuff, can you give me a 55 degree day with puffy clouds and no wind? That would rock. (Of course, I wouldn't turn down the warm day AND some of those chocolate covered marshmallow rabbits that I love...)

Labels: fun, holidays, kids, weather

If I can say "Well, at least my ass didn't grow around my toilet seat" I'm having a good day.

Labels: fun, holy_crap, News, odd

Longtime fans of the Big DumpTruck know that I have odd obsessions. Some come and some go. Some appear to come and go because I don't talk about them as much as I used to. Michael "Lord of the Dance" Flatley, ice cream trucks, and Adam West come to mind (because I used to do a weekly Lord of the Dance update and talk about Adam West sightings, which I don't do any more. I still love them both.)

My current obsession is with garden gnomes. I'm not sure how it happened, but it did. I love them. I don't own any, but that's part of the appeal. Not having one means I get to focus my life on finding just the perfect one.

So now my family points out any television show or commercial that features garden gnomes. It's nice to have people trying to make me happy. Yesterday Mr. Dump sent me a link to a YouTube cartoon that had a very small garden gnome appearance that made me laugh out loud.

And today in the news there's an awesome report of a garden gnome terrorizing a small town in Argentina. Viva la scary gnome!

Labels: fun, gnomes, News, video

I seem to recall seeing something on television (No! Really?) where a bully would wet his finger or thumb with saliva and then rub the thumb on the glasses of the nearest glasses-wearing nerd. Such fun for the nerd! Bully spit at close view!

Today my right contact lens feels like someone did the same thing. Is it possible to have a finger print on a contact lens? I need to go check it out before my 10am meeting, because I don't want to spend two ours with a Popeye-like squint on my face. Sure, maybe if I had a pipe and a can of spinach, but not without my props, thanks.

Labels: eyes, fun, glasses

Okay, quick, tell me what this is:

click
click
click
click
click
click
click
click
click
click
click
click
click
click
click
click

If you guessed "Mr. Dump playing Guitar Hero with the television muted" you'd be right!

My God, that is just a horrifying treat for the whole family if only one person is playing and the others are surfing the web on their laptops while they sit in the recliner, pondering the meaning of life and re-doing the household budget so that there is a small amount of cash available so that you can eat dinner at Chilis because you have a fierce addiction to their chips and salsa. (Yes, I am reduced to wanting to spend money on chips and salsa. I think that's better than trying to figure out how to get $400 to buy a replacement video camera, anyway.)

Anyhoo, thank you for playing. And someone promise me that a version of Guitar Hero for Wii will come out with something other than "Legends of Rock" or whatever this is. I hate 80% of the songs on here, and if I have to listen to Miss Murder one more time I'm going to scream. I have an idea. They should come out with a classical guitar version of G.H. You could play like Andres Segovia or something.

Labels: fun, music, odd, wii

Okay, maybe this will go faster once I get used to the software. Or if I hire someone to do it for me. That person will also figure out how to make the files smaller. Sorry.

Here is the first podcast, stored on my mac.com site because all the tools I use made it easy to do that. If you click on the "subscribe" button it will add the podcast to your iTunes list and any time I do a new one it will get picked up automatically. That's what we all want, right?

THE DUMPCAST IS HERE!

Labels: fun, itunes, podcast, video

I have to tell you, my husband must be sucking up or something. Because I got home and there was a fake log burning in the fireplace. Now I will not admit to myself or anyone else that this is because the fake logs REEK and he wants to burn them all to get them out of the house. I think they smell like liquid smoke, which stinks. And it stinks when you have a fake log that smells like liquid smoke.

No, I like to think he did it because he knows I like fires and he's just being a nice guy. I'm sticking with that.

Labels: fun

It's that time of year again! NaNoWriMo 2007 is upon us, and if you haven't signed up yet, go sign up and then join us on the Nano blog I'm setting up for more detailed posting and sharing. Last year 5 of us contributed to that blog, and we were all happy and sad to see December arrive. (You don't have to sign up to just read, but if you want to contribute, sign up and then let me know to "upgrade" you.)

So I woke up this morning, declared the word "The" to be the first word of my novel and dozed off for another 10 minutes. Writing is hard work. Since then I have decided that "The" is probably not going to be the first word, but no editing allowed when you're trying to write 50,000 words in a month, so I'll just write around the "the" and use it later.

For those waiting for Disney pictures, I have to work my way through about 5 gig worth of them. For those of you not waiting for Disney pictures, be happy, I haven't gone through them all yet.

Labels: fun, nanowrimo, writing

Okay, we won't be giving away Junior Mints because we bought them too early and ate them all. We're only human, you know. We tried to buy something Mr. Dump doesn't like so that they'd stand a chance of lasting until the 31st, which meant Peanut Butter Cups and Kit Kats were right out.

How was I supposed to know he liked Junior Mints? He never buys them or anything.

At Target we found these little plastic gliders for the same price as candy. I figure giving a kid an airplane is probably better than giving jawbreakers, right?

And that way there's more candy for me.

Labels: candy, fun, Halloween

After a long and winding ride home from New Hampshire today (the better to take pictures with, my pretty!) we stopped at the Playground in Lunenburg again, and got stuck in a brief downpour. At one point, it was raining on one side of the car but not on the other. Weather is really cool when it isn't trying to kill you.

I realized we should be able to see a rainbow and found it. And we were stunned to see that the darker one (which was so dark that in person you could actually see the violet, which I normally can't see) ended at....a gold tree. And as you can see by the photo, it's the only gold tree in our line of site.

Thank you, rainbow!

Labels: fun, photos

It's hard to live an exciting life. First people want you to pose on a box of Kraft Mac and Cheese, then they expect you to attend ribbon cutting and key to the city ceremonies. It's all so much work. I live a modest life. I get up in the morning, and Mike Lowell brings me bacon and eggs in bed (over medium, bacon extra crispy but not burnt). After I eat he dabs at my lips with a linen napkin and tells me he's going to go get 4 hits for me in the game and I tell him "you do that, babycakes."

After that, I take a shower and brush my teeth like every other good American. I have to take a phone call from the President because he needs to know what color underwear to use that day. "Today is Tuesday, so look for the blue ones with 'Tuesday' written on the band." So now you know...if it wasn't for me, the POTUS would wear the same undies every day of the week.

To keep myself grounded, I updated the Still Life with Interview page on the site for the first time in about a year and a half. But you guys are totally worth it. Just click on the tab up there on the top left. I know, it's an iffy one, but I'm easing into these high-level updates, you know?

Labels: fun, lies, Mike Lowell, Red_Sox

So I was asked to leave a NorthEast Airlines flight yesterday because my outfit was too revealing. I know that normally I do wear pants, but it was pretty hot yesterday, and plus, I got tar all over them after I finished my shift on the road crew repaving Harvard Street.

I didn't think anyone would mind because I had pulled my shirt down, but the flight attendant, the pilot, two passengers and the guy who wears headphones and holds those red sticks to tell the plan when to stop all asked me to leave the plane and put on something more decent. They did offer to give me a stapler and a pile of luggage tags to see if I could fashion something myself without having to leave the gate area, but I ran out of staples and the little strings on the tags were tickling me.

So I missed my flight, which was going to the Arctic Circle. I'm really bummed, because I was going to try to take some photos. I haven't really added much to my flickr album lately.

Labels: fun, lies, travel

Let's see. Probably time to do that post where I try to make my life more exciting. I should post about something that could never ever ever happen in real life, certainly not to anybody I know.

So this morning my dog discovered a naked bank robber passed out by my pool.

What do you think, too unbelievable?

Labels: fun, lies

Earlier this summer we promised Junior we would rent a convertible and just drive it around for the day, thus getting that need to feel the wind in our hair and bugs in our teeth right out of our systems.

So Sunday we went up to the Manchester Airport and rented this Mustang for the day - total price approx. $125. (If you decide to do this near you, the new rules say you have to either have return flight information or a utility bill in order to use a debit card. Just FYI.)

We took the car over to Maine for the day - it was a big chilly at first, especially driving on the highway, but by the time we got to Kittery it really started warming up. And because we have a new TomTom navigation system, we decided to just drive on any road that looked interesting, knowing that we'd be able to plug in Jane (we call our TomTom the same thing my brother-in-law calls his - Jane is the voice they use) and she'd get us home no matter how "lost" we were. It really makes road trips MUCH more interesting. In fact, we took a road we'd never been on (route 103) and stumbled upon Fort McClary, a fantastic, fabulous find. See my flickr photostream for some cool shots taken at the Fort.

Labels: car, fun, photos, weekend

The place we're staying is surrounded by killer rabbits. At least, that's what we call them. Actually, now we call them the No Trespassing Rabbits because obviously they don't care for our signs and warnings.

So far we've seen a ton of rabbits, a doe, and a fox. Deb thought there was a fishercat sort of growling in the tall grass near the house, but we don't have a visual confirmation on that. It definitely wasn't a rabbit. Well, it could have been a killer rabbit, I suppose.

Last night we had a pouring rainstorm (we estimated about an inch of rain based on what was inside a large plastic bin we had out on the deck and had emptied earlier in the day. This morning it's just dank and foggy and we all feel completely wet. They say there will be sun later today, but it may rain again. That's okay, we haven't been to a Christmas Tree Shop yet, plus we still need to find some pirate ships that will actually float in the water. You know, the life of a vacationing 9-year-old is a busy one.

[More pictures uploaded, including another version of the sun behind clouds photo from Sunday]

Labels: fun, photos, Vacation

Packing to go on vacation = fun and exciting because the whole vacation is just a week of possibilities waiting on the golden horizon.

Packing to come home = sucks.

We are doing the former. In a week, we do the latter. I will have my laptop with me to pull photos off my camera, and apparently the house has wifi, so you may just have something to read/look at over the course of the week, depending on how often I pull out the laptop.

I know you're going to miss me, so I'm going to remind you of a game I rediscovered (via a bookmark I made of it) so that you can keep busy. Idle minds being the devil's workshop and all.
http://rfshq.com/forum/games/virus2.swf

Labels: fun, link, Vacation

Yesterday was laundry day around Casa Des DumpTrucks. I think I personally did 375 loads of laundry. I know that there were parts of the floor I hadn't seen in months that are now part of the family again.

We celebrated laundry day by, um, doing laundry. We also took in a showing of The Simpsons (only a couple of iffy words, I was more concerned about the content of the preview for Good Luck Chuck, or whatever it's called, which seemed to me to be more R than PG-13, given that the entire thing was about sex) and got some shampoo at Target. (Pantene, I got the one that has shampoo and conditioner combined because I'm so damned lazy that I cannot be bothered to do them both if it involves flipping the cap on two different bottles. I haven't done a 2-in-1 shampoo since Pert was first introduced in the Middle Ages and I hated how greasy it made my hair.)

Oh, okay, we also celebrated laundry day by playing a round of Travel Blokus (tip 'o the hat to utterwonder.com for bringing Blokus to my attention) and Mario Party 8 on the Wii. And then I ended laundry day by pretending I had enough money to buy a wide angle lens for my camera. (Anyone have an opinion on the Sigma 10-20mm? Is it too slow to use indoors?)

Okay, so I added a script to the page that will automatically turn key terms into Amazon.com links. Let's see how much of the above ends up sending you all on shopping sprees...

Labels: camera, chores, fun, shopping, Sunday

I'm the kind of person who finds planning a vacation as relaxing and enjoyable as going on one. Maybe more so, because when you are planning, everything and anything is possible, there are no lines or bugs or heat, no need to pull out the credit card every fifteen minutes, no maps to read or refold. I love trying to pick just the right hotel at just the right location. I could spend hours on travel websites looking at the interiors of hotel rooms. I'm smart enough to know that if a hotel's website only shows closeups of the pillows on the bed or the bedside table, the room is probably the size of a small dog.

So every time we go to Florida (and sometimes even when we aren't going) I am in planning mode times 12. I get books. I read websites (lots of them) and my favorite email newsletter from allearsnet.com (If you enjoy Disney and don't get this weekly newsletters, your Tuesdays are a cold and dank place I don't want to be.) Remember, one of my photos is on their website (scroll all the way down - the last photo on the page is mine.)

This time around, Mr. Dump asked to be the planner guy, and I said yes. So my role has been greatly reduced. I only got one updated guide (I'm saving all my old ones...some day we'll read and look at the pictures and say "oh my gosh, it hasn't been like that for 10 years!"). But I also got a book called Oddball Florida: A Guide to Some Really Strange Places (Oddball series). It's really really good and now I want to take a trip to Florida and just hit all these awful tourist attractions! By the way, my new favorite street name comes from the location of the Water Ski Hall of Fame and Museum - it is located on Holy Cow Road in Polk City. Holy Cow Road! I want to live on Holy Cow Road!

So that's all I have to say today. I'm still killing time. I can tell you, I won't be finishing the Oddball Florida book in the next few days.

Labels: florida, fun, photos, Vacation, wierd

My friend Andrea entered a contest to make a video for the Jonathan Coulton song "I Feel Fantastic" over at the PopSci (Popular Science) blog. She is not an animator, and I actually helped her out a smidge by forwarding a list of Mac animation software links. This is my only claim to fame related to her endevor.

She won the contest, and her fabulously fantastic video is available on YouTube.

Labels: friends, fun, movies, music

I was at Target tonight, you know, because that's where I live, looking at some fans for the house. We need one for our spare bedroom (which is not so spare when my step kids are visiting) so I was checking prices on some. A woman who was browsing with a male companion approached me and said "excuse me, do you have any box fans?"

Me: "I'm sorry?"

Her: "Do you have any box fans?"

Me: "Me personally? No. I, uh, don't work here."

Her: "Oh my gosh, I'm sorry!"

My shirt wasn't even really red, more brick-ish. Sheesh.

So now I'm thinking I should get a real red shirt, have a nametag made up, and wander the aisles or Target giving bad advice.

Labels: fun, shopping, Target

You are not going to be able to read about a few things here today because I am not going to write about them. If you came here to read up on these topics, I'm truly sorry. Maybe next week I will want to write about them, but for now, I will not.

• My favorite knock-knock jokes that involve dwowning
• Why I prefer ketchup on my roast beef sandwich
• The benefits of salt
• My favorite air drumming songs
• Why a blue pen is better than a black one
• Paris Hilton's prison-issued underwear woes
• How often the 1920 Girl Scout handbook says you should wash your hair
• The horror of watching your 3rd grader become a 4th grader overnight
• Why mentioning Paris Hilton and Lindsey Lohan is only good for attracting random visitors but not your loyal readers who prefer, say, Fred Mertz prison jokes
• Suggestions for how to weed through all the coffee cups you have received at trade shows to keep the number under 8
• Words I can make from my phone number(s)
• Things Mr. Dump won't be getting for fathers day

I'm sorry I'm not going to be talking about those things. Maybe if you all feel very strongly about one or more of them, you can convince me to cover the topic. Otherwise, tough it out, people.

Labels: fun, writing

As you can see, Junior is attempting to milk the big fiberglass cow at Sturbridge Village. You can see it in the cow's eyes...she's not happy. Not happy at all. The boys, on the other hand, thought this was great. In fact, we made three trips to Ye Olde Milking Station. Bossy was full of water, and on a hot day, if you aim it juuuuust right, you can spray each other. Now that is a great way to make sure the bus loads of 9 year old boys will tell everyone they had a great time on the field trip.

I have to say, they have made a lot of improvements at Old Sturbridge Village since the last time I was there, and although I'm greatly saddened by the fact that they have apparently closed the restaurant, they are making improvements to other buildings. Do me a favor, and schedule a trip down some time this summer. I know they've had financial issues and I'd hate to see such a great place close. Plus you can milk a fiberglass cow.

Labels: Cow, fun, junior, summer

Okay, I know you're all sick to death of ant posts. Well, maybe some of you aren't. So if you are, I promise, the next post I write will be about something else. But this one is not.

Mr. Dump called me with some very important information today. Apparently the ant supply company sent us more ants. More killer ants! It's my dream package! Of course, I'm pretty sure that if we added them to the ant farm they would immediately start a turf war and then all the ants would be dead before morning. They are like that. So I have a few hours to figure out what to do with these things. No freaking way can I release them. That's all I need, is a back yard full of harvester ants [waves to Dave G]. Anyone local to Leominster have an ant farm lacking ants? If you do, post here in the next couple of hours, otherwise, the poor suckers are probably going to have a burial at sea.

Labels: ants, fun

Labels: fun, holy_crap, video

Oh man, it's time to cut out snowflakes again. I need to make sure my step-son reads this, as he was obsessed last year. This site, which looks very similar to the one we used to use, will make him happy because you can actually cut in the middle of the paper, not just from the edges (which, to be fair, is a limit you have when you are making them with real paper, for the most part.)

You can also search for flakes done by people with the same name as you, or people from your town. I'm not the first person from Leominster to play with this!

Labels: fun, time_waster, winter