Friday, October 31, 2008

Boo!




Thought you all might get a kick out of this punkin today!


Saturday, October 25, 2008

Day 15

Flagstaff, AZ to Tucson, AZ!

Welcome Home World Travellers!

Coincidence? I don't think so

The following two news stories appeared in the same week.

2 greenhouse gases on the rise worry scientists
AP Science Writer Seth Borenstein, Ap Science Writer – Sat Oct 25, 12:39 am ET

WASHINGTON – Carbon dioxide isn't the only greenhouse gas that worries climate scientists. Airborne levels of two other potent gases — one from ancient plants, the other from flat-panel screen technology — are on the rise, too. And that's got scientists concerned about accelerated global warming.


The Stink in Farts Controls Blood Pressure
Amelia Tomas livescience.com – Thu Oct 23, 3:21 pm

A smelly rotten-egg gas in farts controls blood pressure in mice, a new study finds. The unpleasant aroma of the gas, called hydrogen sulfide (H2S), can be a little too familiar, as it is expelled by bacteria living in the human colon and eventually makes its way, well, out. The new research found that cells lining mice's blood vessels naturally make the gas and this action can help keep the rodents' blood pressure low by relaxing the blood vessels to prevent hypertension (high blood pressure). This gas is "no doubt" produced in cells lining human blood vessels too, the researchers said.

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Day 13

Walla Walla, WA to Brigham City, UT

Sailing in open waters


Sailing boats participate in the 40th edition of the traditional 'Barcolana' regatta, one of the most crowded sailing races, in the Gulf of Trieste, northern Italy, Sunday, Oct. 12, 2008.

You could probably walk across the waters here.
I don't see how you can call this relaxing, Cleat!

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Home Alone!

So, with Mrs. Beisbolfan away, at least I had S3 to keep me company. But this morning I took her in to get a destinking. She really wanted to go in the car, but when we got to PetSmart, she was not happy about me leaving her there. In the meantime, I washed the sheets, shams and comforter. When we got home, the wash wasn't done so I had to keep her out. "Ret re rin!"
Check out the Halloween neckerchief!

Ahhhhh, this is all I wanted.

Monday, October 20, 2008

Corduroy Mansions

One of my favourite authours is Alexander McCall Smith.

He writes the Mma Ramotswe, "No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency" series, the "44 Scotland Street" series, the "Isabel Dalhousie" novels, the "Portuguese Irregular Verbs" series and is now engaged in writing a daily novel called "Corduroy Mansions"

The last line of the current chapter is, "...he meant well, even if it was sometimes rather difficult to work out exactly what it was that he meant"

His web site is at Alexander McCall Smith

Read Corduroy Mansions here >>>


Friday, October 17, 2008

Election humor

Historically, Election Day in the U.S. is always the first Tuesday, following the first Monday, of November. That date would be Tuesday, November 4 in the year 2008. But with the voter turnout expected to be historically high, given the nature of this Presidential election, apparently there is a change taking place in this year's procedure.

Voting will take place over two days instead of just one. Everyone that appears at the polls Tuesday, November 4, 2008, will only be allowed to vote for Republican Party candidates. If you want to vote for a Democratic Party candidate, or a split party ticket, you are to appear at the polls on Wednesday, November 5, 2008. This is to eliminate long lines and delays in voting.

For some reason this procedural change has not been covered very well so far by the media. But I'm sure it will get more coverage as we get closer to Election Day(s). So that all of our votes can count, please pass this along to everyone that you think may want to vote for any Democratic Party candidates, including Barack Obama.

See you at the polls!

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Day 6



Florence, OR to Gearhart, OR

hoy, puloy!

Darrell Hammond reacts to almost heading the wrong way off the stage after shaking hands with Fred Armisen at the conclusion of the final mock presidential debate at the Hofstra University set in New York

Sand3aye all day long

While Rom's away...




Monday, October 13, 2008

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Friday, October 10, 2008

Check out Space Invaders below

Scroll down for a clone of Space Invaders.  I didn't write it, but I like it!
/M<

Billions and Billions


There are 10^11 stars in the galaxy. That used to be a huge number. But it's only a hundred billion. It's less than the national deficit! We used to call them astronomical numbers. Now we should call them economical numbers.
  - Richard Feynman

Saturday, October 4, 2008

This must be a joke.
Why would they keep the cow hat on for the mugshot?



This undated mug shot released by the Middletown, Ohio, police department shows M_______ A____, 32. A____ was arrested Sept. 27, 2008 after she allegedly impeded traffic, urinated on a neighbor's porch and chased children while wearing a cow suit, according to a Middletown police report.
(AP Photo/Middletown Ohio Police department via Dayton Daily News)

keeping with the blog's theme

Windows Vista sound mixer

Ok, I'm no fan of W.H.Gates, but some things on Windows Vista are pretty cool, while other things really annoy. For example, if you have less than 3 Gigabytes of main memory, for-get about even trying to run Vista, imho.
Mrs. Beisbolfan and I were discussing the lack of warning when the battery is running low. Use to be that you could set some sort of alarm to tell you when the battery is low or critical and what low or critical means. Now, when the battery is low, the monitor just shuts off. No warning or anything. Ok, there may be a warning, but all we can figure is it's a sound and not an alert dialog popping up. We usually have the sound off to avoid annoying each other with the Mahjohg and other noises.
Which leads me to one really clever feature of Vista. The volume mixer, you know, when you click on the little speaker in the systray and click on the link marked Mixer, shows the normal Device setting, the headphones or the built in speakers or whatever, but it also shows sound by application. So, if you have a web page up that has sound, you can mute only that web page. The other sounds aren't muted. You have to try this to understand how absolutely cool that is. It's not something that I would have thought to do or even that you could do, but these designers are well paid for a reason.

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Red Red Wine


After you drink the wine, you make things out of the corks!
Not as much fun when it's a screw top...

Red, red wine
Go to my head
Make me forget that I
Still need her so

Red, red wine
It's up to you
All I can do, I've done
But memories won't go
No, memories won't go

I'd have sworn
That with time
Thoughts of you
Would leave my head
I was wrong
And I find
Just one thing
Makes me forget

Red, red wine
Stay close to me
Don't let me be alone
It's tearing apart
My blue, blue heart

Ok, my opinion and I could be wrong. When someone does a great version of a song - like the above done perfectly by Neil Diamond - and someone elstes does a version - like UB40 - I usually really, really, really don't like it. I'm conservative - don't like change - but UB40 does a pretty great version

Grandfather (and Grandmother)'s clock

When I was little, I would hear the "Liberty" clock in my grandparents' dining room start to strike. It struck once on the half hour and the number of the hours on the hour. I would always race in and sometimes made it (when it was after 6 or so) to see it strike the last couple of times. Forget it on the half hour or early in the afternoon. I don't know why I was so fascinated by it. It was just that the little mechanism would pull back and then boing! Simple things for simple minds. The funny thing is, all I would have to do is wait for 1/2 hour and sit there to watch the whole process, but I could never remember that long. (Reminds me of always forgetting to bring home the pieces of the locks display-remember that?)
So, we brought it back from my folks' house and now it sits atop the buffet like an antefix. Looks nice there, I'm thinkin'. What do you think?

Oh, by the way, check out Goldena's plate in the lower right!

Goldena's painting on a plate (detail)



Liberty clock (detail)

Yikes!

As I was taking out the trash, I was thinking about how it was that we hadn't had any of those darn little rattlesnakes in the carport for a few years. I've been able to take care of them with a hammer and a quick strike. Of course, we had the one in the back yard. Penny took one for me then.
Tonight, I came back inside and told S3 to come inside, called Rural Metro and waited for what seemed like 20 minutes for them to come 2 1/2 blocks.

Gotta love the desert!

Aroma Therapy Candles

Funny guy! Off The Mark