The Big DumpTruck

Do you know how much I love you people? In 2004 my family watched the Sox win the world series from Walt Disney World. So we decided to do our part and go to WDW again so that the Sox could win the Series again this year. I am a giver.

I forgot my phone charger so I haven't been able to keep you up to date - I would have told you earlier but I was afraid you pranksters would TP my house.

I will be able to read all my mail and do a better update on Wednesday when we get back. We're off to the Magic Kingdom to see if they decorated with Red Sox balloons like it was the last time.

Labels: Red_Sox, Vacation

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

I snub my nose at the calendar. I don't care if it's October 19th (it's the 19th, right?), I decided to wear sandals to work today. You see, I have a ton of cool sandals. I do not have a ton of cool shoes. I don't even have a ton of non-cool shoes. I have nothing that I want to wear to work and that work wants me to wear, y'know?

So because the temperature was going to hit seventy today, I thought I'd wear sandals even though it was supposed to rain today. And I'd do it again. Because that's the kind of person I am. That's how I roll.

(I'm just killing time until a charity crumb apple pie finishes baking. A co-worker's kids go to a school that does this fundraiser...they make hundreds of these pies and sell them, uncooked, for ten bucks each. I love me some apple pie, and I like to support charities. Everybody wins!)

Labels: fall, pie, shoes

This afternoon I went to Gove Farm to see if they still had tomatoes. They are definitely out of corn for the year, but they still have squash, tomatoes, beans, etc. I was VERY VERY excited. They'll be open through the end of the month, and then the stand will be closed but they'll have a self-serve table (honor system, I assume) for as long as there are still veggies to pick.

I'm recovering from a bout of something or other that I ate yesterday, so I'm staying away from eating these today, but you can bet your butt I'll be having one of these beauties for lunch tomorrow!

Labels: food, photos

Before I forget, I just wanted to say "goodbye" to the fantastic tomatoes I enjoyed this summer. I'm going to miss each and every one of you over the next 9-10 months. Life looks pretty bleak when you think about the mealy, orange tomatoes we'll be forced to endure, instead of the huge, juicy, deep read beauties of the summer.

I'm hoping to get another week or so from the local farm stands, but I don't have a lot of hope. Goodbye, good tomatoes. See you next summer!

Labels: food, sad

I like living in a non_parched and barren landscape as much as the next guy, but after a week of drizzle, I was DONE with it. If it's going to rain, it should rain and be done with it. The endless misty drizzle just sucks. It's not raining hard enough to use an umbrella, but you need one to stay dry. It's hard to get the windshield wipers just right because it looks like it isn't raining but it is. I don't know, maybe people prefer that to a good old fashioned rainstorm, but I prefer the latter. Unless it lasts for a long time, in which case I'd like to reserve the right to change my mind.

Either way, the sun is out today, and a few weeks late the trees are starting to turn. (Is it just me or does the peak foliage seem late this year?) I rented a lens for my camera (what a cool concept - being able to rent a lens so you can try before you buy) and I want to give it a try. I suppose that means there will be new content on flickr before the weekend is over.

Labels: autumn, foliage, rain, weather

Sorry, server problem followed up with user error. I think I'm all set now. You can let me know if I'm not. You always do.

Television recommendation: If you aren't watching "Reaper" on the CW network (around these parts I think that's what used to be Channel 56). Best. Show. On. TV. If Ray Wise doesn't win a Best Actor Emmy...

Okay, so I was thinking about the worst class I took in college. I mean other than accounting. The worst class I took had great potential. It was called "Electronic music." So I'm thinking about Moog synthesizers, and keyboards and maybe being offered a job by Duran Duran.

This class took "electronic music" down to a level that only Phillip Glass could appreciate. Our instrument was a box with a couple of dials and a reel to reel player. We spent weeks learning how to wire up the two so that we could take sounds we'd recorded onto a cassette, get it into the box with the two dials, and then out into the reel-to-reel so that we could get our final project grade.

It is as horrific as it sounds. All I remember about mine is that one of the sounds I captured for my project was a toilet flushing. The two knobs on the box were basically controlling modulation and something else. One of you probably knows. Or cares. We just basically got it to make beeps and boops and screechy noises that I didn't think were anything like music at all.

Thinking back, I'm wondering why we didn't storm the office and demand this class be removed because it was such a ripoff. I think we might have been too young to realize that we could do that...after all, we were paying for the credit hours. But there's something about being 20 years old and a full-time student living on campus that doesn't make you think of yourself as the customer, as in "the customer is always right and that was NOT electronic music."

Ahh, good times.

Labels: college, memories, odd

Internal Server Error? Me? Why I never!

You know, it's nice to sweep. It's nice to be the team sweeping, not the team being swept.

Labels: Red_Sox

Junior has to write an essay over the weekend. His first big-boy homework! The subject is "My First ____". They had to brainstorm ideas for a topic, then they had to fill in a sheet that basically was a way of drafting the essay. He was actually pretty far along with it already, so I have no doubt this one is in the bag.

His essay is "My First Red Sox Game" which happened to occur a month or so ago. That's right, my son, the nine year old, had never been to a game, mostly because it's impossible to get tickets. These were the crappy seats you get for free (one game) when you join Red Sox Nation.

Anyhoo, he and I got to talking about First Person Narratives that you just don't want to read. He and I started a list, and I will continue it for you.

My First Diaper Rash
The First Time I Ate Peas
My First Poo
The First Time I Watched Blue's Clues
My First Big Boy Underwear

Labels: essay, humor, junior, school

I keep hearing these radio commercials for a company where you can send "your unwanted gold jewelry" and they will pay you for it. So many, many things wrong with this. Where to begin?

Okay, first off, who has unwanted gold jewelry? Even the stuff I don't love I will hang on to, because, well, it's gold jewelry. Really, let's just be honest and say the target audience is people who are very hard up for money and happen to have some that they can sell. Or worst case (and you know this is happening) some little crackhead is stealing from grandma's jewelry box for drug money.

Now gold has value, and given the quality of it, you can bring it to many jewelers who will weigh the gold and tell you what it's worth. Some of them will even buy it from you (maybe not for full value - I wouldn't know, I haven't been selling my jewelry). And you can go to a pawn shop for the same thing. In both of those cases, you are right there in front of someone making the transaction. At what point do you figure you'll put three necklaces in an envelope, send it to the radio company, and they'll pay you for 2 necklaces? They say that all shipments are insured, but how does that work? How can you prove that you sent three? Does the person at the UPS store have to sign something as a witness?

I'm sorry, but does anyone really think that sending something in the mail to the company name advertised on the radio isn't going to be noticed by anyone handling the envelope? There are dishonest people everywhere. Anyone who has ever heard the commercial is going to know there is gold in the package. I'd say the chances of you getting ripped off (by any definition of the phrase) is pretty high.

So let's solve that problem. If you have unwanted gold jewelry, you send it to me, and I'll send you back an autographed photo of me and my dog. Because the autographed photo is priceless, you will definitely be making a good decision to unload all that "unwanted" jewelry in my direction. Oh, and if you have unwanted diamonds or sapphires, I will throw in a 2 minute phone call to your cell phone. I am so giving.

Labels: commercials, money, scams, scary