scottobear | Entries tagged with calvert county

Calvert marine museum. Don’t get seasick. Tiny Chris and Larry on the ledge.

Larry with megalodon

My sweetheart and me.

Originally published at The Scotto Grotto. You can comment here or there.

There is no current Advisory for Calvert County. The potential is a gradient of snow from approximately ½ inch of snow in the northern areas of Calvert down to nothing in the southern end. If precipitation starts it will be flurries after 9 pm with the most significant band between midnight and 6 am. After the precipitation, a cold front will move through the area with winds potentially in the 30-40mph range and some of the coldest temperatures of the season.

Saturday morning could be in the single digits.

Originally published at The Scotto Grotto. You can comment here or there.

BHK and I stopped off at the flea market on the way to study at the library - picked up a nice fedora for $5. (see icon) comfy and it fits. Also got a rock heater for my back and/or BHK's feet

ATW is especially freaky today - he's being hunted by some giant clown phantom. Probably a cannibal.

Llamas off the side of the road, and a huge beetle when we got home!

[2] Desktop, 100SSCAM, 10 images, S6304043 - S6304054 - 6581x2544 - SCUL-Smartblend

[2] Desktop, 100SSCAM, 3 images, S6304038 - S6304040 - 3168x2334 - SCUL-Smartblend

[2] Desktop, 100SSCAM, 3 images, S6304037 - S6304042 - 3115x2258 - SCUL-Smartblend

[2] Desktop, 100SSCAM, 3 images, S6304031 - S6304035 - 2867x2384 - SCUL-Smartblend

1 year ago - bush leaving g8, octagon egg roll, the count loves to BLEEP, h2 mod - decadence, creeps on the internet

2 years ago - umbrella scabbard voice post, hot brain, sailboat doodle, yelp, DMAE, mercury poisoning?, Newtie and Pye pics, Sicko, slurpee day, silly spoilers

3 years ago - he's a whore, key west stuff, travel photos (mostly graffiti), barrel of monkeys,

4 years ago - Magda time, ff flick reviews in, supernatural crime, free Slurpee, angels with attitude *shudder*, Wilde on the red rose, insanity, bottles on string, math symbol uses, had to htaccess, pagenation, Melissa Gilbert, 911 google, Florida mafia

5 years ago - Newt says Mao, travel pondering, manatee, Dan alters color scheme, good eats

6 years ago - Zwan, I snuff griefer #5, movies, Elvis tooth, bad baby names, net radio, flipped off by the universe

7 years ago - reflecting on old work, log issues, Newt attack, recalling palm animations

8 years ago - fetial, solecism, pockets poll, purse poll, evil news, pie poll, tuck-ins

9 years ago - words, bro moving to town

Current Mood: sore
Current Location: 20714
Current Music: The wire - season 1, ep 03

1 year ago - food, cough, house and hell's kitchen, lifelock fails and is sued, James Garner, Opheera McDoom vs Cinnamon Stouffer, SQL union command handy, newt tackle pye pic again, insane highway cloverleaf

2 years ago - acceptable in the 80s, shrek 3, pictures of otters, fireplugs and dressed up geese.

3 years ago - black adder / house, play-doh perfume, historical sounds, marco polo, a mouthful of crabs, paul anka, ninja name meme

4 years ago - breakdancing bodybuilding, bus trip with mzk pics, no magda, ear whispers

5 years ago - tman & pix, Confucius, there 'closing', wireless at the 'mat, warchalking

6 years ago - PT, hoverbikes, rain, laundry video

7 years ago - more LJ reflecting (I averaged 3 posts a day back then), "VanityDeleters" and keeping LJ for the future, broken pic links to repair,awesome cd from sholanda

8 years ago - Life improved for me, LJ has gained more features, egress, rubber track conversion, ramen noodles, kumbaya, answer to the woodchuck question.

9 years ago - Fritz gave Newt a parasite, my first actual entry

Current Mood: chipper
Current Location: calvert county, md
Current Music: peepers and woodpeckers

It started with a foggy Monday morning. (sakes, that's even weaker than "It was a dark and stormy night.") Sleepy start, but a little nap on the train into work gave me a little jump start. Warmer lately... upper 40s, with very little wind.

Work progressed evenly, though there is plenty to do. The holiday cookie competition was launched in the break room - 4 entries this year. A white chocolate / cranberry drop, pecan bar with milk chocolate, an oatmeal-type square, and a rum ball sort of cookie.... I'm torn, because they're all good stuff. I think that I'll end up voting for #2 or #3... another sampling tomorrow will help me to decide. ;)

Lunch was leftover ziti and veggies from last night's din-din... it was yummy - garlic is a wonderful thing.

Heading home was a bit pokey, due to a delay on the green line... a person was hit by a train at Fort Meade, home of the NSA. My imagination makes me wonder if it's a spy or dark ops guy running away from the men in black. Some mastermind making off with the keyword list from ECHELON, no doubt. We have a couple of those radomes in North Beach/Chesapeake Beach, come to think of it.

Why yes, I did run a little program on the above for wiki-links. That's sort of distracting... I doubt that I'll do that as regularly again. I'm a little goggle-eyed just looking at all of the possible snap link-bubbles there.

Got home, and snacked on Cheese crackers while watching Gossip Girl with BHK. I'm not sure when the episode was made, but it sure has a writer's strike feel to it... Dixie from Brisco County has aged a lot better than Bruce Campbell. Then again, he's ten years older than her. Speaking of which... I really dug Burn Notice - Fresher to me than House... presses all the right buttons for me.

After a snack, we finally got to see Transformers, despite all the warnings against it. I tend to agree, that it was really cornball and kind of dumb, but it had a couple of fun bits. I wouldn't have walked out of the theater, but I might have complained about paying $10 to see it. Good for a no-brainer netflix night. Not worth seeing more than once. Speaking of flicks, I'm looking forward to seeing Machine Girl (note, blood-spray violence in the trailer - flying guillotine, drill bra, machine gun arm, and tempura / sushi trauma.)

BHK brought home two more game rentals... tried out one, Geometry Wars. Fun, but tough... very retro feel due to the vector graphics and asteroids / omega race vibe. Not a lot to it, but the controls are pretty nifty, and multi-player has some real bite to it.

Overall, we had a relaxing night - still no lights on the tree, but that's where we were last year, too. Tomorrow, I think that there's a strong possibility of putting a few more items up... our little outdoor teak tree has some all-weather lights on, and it looks terribly cute. Photos are going to have to follow soon.

As it is, I'm up too late! A quick link, and I'm off to bedski.

via flying_blind - (also responsible for pointing me to this keen transit site back a bit ago)

"Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project. It's goatloads of old Edison cylinder recordings, some downloadable, plus a selection of them can be streamed while your browse. And yes, they have "Yes We Have No Bananas", as recorded in 1923 by the Green Bros. Novelty Band. What more could one ask of any website?"

1 year ago - Tony vs Paul (still pretty dang awesome), newtcam, Annapolis cam, Xmas tree up, but undecorated.

2 years ago - complex life, sex roles, Narnia, big brain repair issues

3 years ago - Newt stretch, Mels' place, grumpy workers, lost good, many random Scotto factoids, best chitty-chitty bang bang line

4 years ago - movie clapper poll, hakarl, RI not nice, Rudolph: Behind the scenes.

5 years ago - Rubber monsters, the four humors, feculence, Jane Goodall believes in Bigfoot, prezzies

6 years ago - autochthonous, Nobel prize, Cetus, BEAR WINS; SUIT LOSES

7 years ago - nifty links, Fidel Castro's John Lennon statue, and life's perfectly swell, KMFDM

Current Mood: good
Current Location: 20714
Current Music: full tummy gurgles

Nice morning, until I got out of bed, and pulled my back. At that point, I was in extreme pain and after much shrieking and frightening BHK, I took a shower to loosen up a little bit and went to urgent care. I'd say it took me about 45 minutes to work out how to walk from bed to the shower...the pain was pretty significant. Agony is a good word, that sounds about right.

Needless to say, I missed my allergy shots. I get to call on Monday to see what I can do about rescheduling.

After getting looked at, I was given a 'scrip for an anti-inflammatory and a narcotic to knock me out for when I got home. The 800 mg of Ibuprofen given to me took quite a bit of the edge off, as did the change in position from sitting to standing. I was feeling good enough to grab a bite to eat and a haircut... Ledo's calzone for me, and BHK nom nom'ed on some tortellini. We shared the spicy ravioli appetizer... probably the highlight of the meal.

Seen in the parking lot, after my trip to ouchie-land: if clicked and embiggened - License plate reads "Sons Confederate Veterans "

How do those folks rate a plate? I guess money talks. It is interesting to note that they don't want any connection to the KKK around the Confederacy... The sad fact is that when I see a confederate southern cross "battle flag", whatever else has happened, I assume the worst. Despite the wealth of history and culture... it just smacks of white supremacist behavior to me. I have to wonder if the owners of such plates get into or out of more scrapes with other people... Is a police officer more or less likely to give a ticket instead of a warning? If they drive through different parts of town, do folks cheer or give him the finger?

I wonder the same about pro-life or pro-choice bumper stickers and plates, too.

First Christmas Present arrived... From Kev, via Amazon (His isn't due to arrive in Guantanamo until after his item is released on the 18th... not telling what it is here, in case he reads this. I haven't peeked at the invoice, so my present is a surprise, too.

Rested at the in-laws - Chinese food and we watched Flyboys. Not a bad flick. It fed my desire to see biplanes vs triplanes in arial combat, so there you go. I was pleased to see a zeppelin, disappointed that they took a huge pile of liberties with history. (I didn't mind that so many "Red Barons" were there... but it was pretty goofy from a historical context)

1 year ago - first whole day in MD, unpacking and prep.

2 years ago - icon choices, my links help a local, cake and cartoons

3 years ago - shrimp allergy, mercy lackey writes something good, bro upsets me, drugs on bodies, gozilla on star walk of fame

4 years ago - Cutie-newt, Dale back at FMM, Dreams, First heard the term Sheeple, ancient d20, holly, World AIDS day, bro drama

5 years ago - Ebay Army men, coloringbook, action-figure cam, good guys/bad guys, MH spammer removal

6 years ago - coloringbook started... pretty slow community now.

7 years ago - stream of thought, scotophobin, two guys walk into a bar

Current Mood: pained
Current Location: 20714
Current Music: Raspberry Beret - in my head. Where'd that come from? Drugs?

Again, for any who care - "Black Friday" is *not* the busiest shopping day of the year. (Though it is generally in the top 10)

Today in a nutshell:

Allergy shots - quick like a wink.

Greek Festival - crafts were interesting - more art glass and felting.

More nifty to me was the interior of the church.
Jesus has a little smudge on his face.
Gold Bells
Augustine and Helen Mosaic.
Devil and Squid.
Merman and angels? No answer from guide. Photos to follow. Squid says "I don't care! I don't care!". Satan is balding, but has braided pigtails.
Marble vs Ivory.

Homestead Gardens - 3 new ornaments.

robot - retrobot reminds BHK of me.
love bugs - BHK and I all snuggly.
popcorn - our fondness for movies.

Preacher cookies at the in-laws. (Chocolate cookie, made with oats. yummy.)

nap, no sleep, just rest.

Picked up dinner for the crew, and we saw will at the Chinese food place.. is he making a resurgence? He seemed to have seen us, and appeared to hide out in the Roland's while we got our food. We saw him head back to the Chinese food place as we were driving off.

Back at in laws for General Tso's Tofu and a viewing of Christmas Vacation - I dozed off a few times.

Home again, and deep sleeps.

Fire on Friday’s Creek, originally uploaded by cynroux.

Beautiful capture of local color by Cyn! Amazing grab of local autumn colors.

1 year ago - coughing, sickies one day to one month

2 years ago - William Burroughs Thanksgiving, Adam Sandler Counterpoint, I left home at Thanksgiving (1987), collection of questions, Bwain, quiz results, Herm gets snow!, thank you songs, grover smash puny human

3 years ago - toasted orange marmalade sammiches, weather, getting porn spam, Italian vampires must have it rough, comic books, non-net folks, Frost, I want to..., GREG photoplay made by me from secret squirrel episode way back when!, I like bananas

4 years ago - Dr. Who, Mail, Ellies, Pods, mininukes

5 years ago - chores, 7 seas, supah-tofutti, Proverbs 15:1

6 years ago - met with tarpo and isis, tarot, fair-palm synch, LJ-ish quotes

7 years ago - Kids in the Hall bits, things I'm thankful for, what's love?, dream

Current Mood: sleepy
Current Location: 20714
Current Music: Holiday Road - in my head

Dinner last night was excellent... BHK and I slept a bit late this morning - just relaxed a little before heading out for a trip with Larry to take a look at the toy trains set up at the neighborhood motorcycle shop. It was pretty amazing - I'd really like to know where he stores all of his track, trains and scenery the rest of the year! I think that my favorite parts of the set were fire engines at the burning building (with real smoke), the hobo camp off to the side in one of the tunnels, or the Super Chief. Pictures to follow as they're uploaded.

After an hour or so there, we popped off to the doctor's office in the hopes of getting a jump on my weekend shots. No dice - they had the same break that I did. Tomorrow's another day, though.

As consolation, we went to Mexico for very late lunch and then poked our noses into the Festival of Trees. Quite lovely, but I didn't realize it was for Hospice... many of the trees were memorials. Given the fact that my Dad's birthday is right around the corner (I can't believe that he'd have been 62) and that my grandmother is teetering on hospice care now - that was all a bit much for me. The Tree in the middle with all the doves on it, and each one named for someone in that sort of care really cut me to the quick.

Christmas isn't supposed to be about deep, gut-level sorrow regarding loss... if anything, it should be a celebration of joy. I'd say it took me a good little while to rearrange my thoughts into the proper mindset.

That said, we did see some beautiful trees, again, pictures to follow. The craft show aspect was less than stellar, given that the good stuff (items made by hand - glass beads, ceramics, art prints, etc.) were rather crowded out by the bad. (Air filter units, Herbalife [crosses arms and spits to both sides], and prefab junk made overseas and sold on tables.)

We got a ceramic votive candle holder made by kids in the school's art department... it's lovely, and we got to meet the person who designed it. It now resides atop the TV, for mood lighting.

BHK is by far the most wonderful traveling companion a person could ever wish for. The fact that I love her so much isn't clouding my vision there in the least. She has a delightful sense of wonder and curiosity that makes everything just a little more shiny and brought into focus.

1 year ago - gobble gobble - turkey day

2 years ago - talked to bro in hospital, local music, reader quiz

3 years ago - good counters bad, beard, heroin traffic in sofla, Melissa not Alyssa, evo vs creationism beliefs in the usa, googlewhacked, crimes against children task force

4 years ago - Whatever comes to mind, kid memory, cent sign, elephants

5 years ago - Mayah's Birthday with pics, mage knight, cosplayers, Newtpics, ACCExpo, Lemmiwinks song

6 years ago - Superpowers, assoil, holiday icon musing

7 years ago - Golden Rice, survey, myths over Miami

Current Mood: chex mix
Current Location: 20714
Current Music: Ray Charles Christmas songs

Calvert county fair - we only popped in for a moment to look at the critters,check out the crafts and produce competition, grabbed a free book each from the library tent and then got a Corn dog for BHK and a lemonade for myself... however we paused a few times to do some extra purchases on the way out.

a multitude of pictures here , more to follow eventually.

I like this one the best of the day - near another old corn maze and a bounce house shaped like a jack o'lantern.

First item - pear butter for us, cherry-apple cider for me, peach-apple cider for BHK, and grape-apple butter as a gift for Larry.

Most impressive was our encounter with Hoggette Spiggy - I was very impressed with the amount of good that they've done over the years for Children's Charities - over 100 mil since 1983! Lots of good causes. Got to admire a guy in drag and a pig nose doing good works. click to make the picture bigger. Note Darryl Grant's Superbowl ring.

We were only out and about for a brief period, but it was good to get a touch of fresh air after being under wraps this week. We spent the majority of the evening in the loft, relaxing and watching far too much tivo. Star Wars Family Guy? meh. interesting recapture of the shots, but not worth a whole episode. New Simpsons was a standard new episode - best part was the opening taking place in the aftermath of the movie. Best part about snuggling in and watching tv is the snuggling, for sure.

1 year ago - haircut coming, more wedding hints, passing around meme, happy or right?, mr rogers playing donkey kong,

2 years ago - work stuff, 2l, stalin wasn't stallin', skeletons, killer dolphins freed by katrina!

3 years ago - Mount St. Helens VolcanoCam, Dawn of War, satmaps for the fuzz, bugmenot, la to ny, voice talent, ADP issues, entry statchers

4 years ago - goodies, headmap, "fly me" fired, newt-tracker cam test

5 years ago - kev get together, A/C poopy, chores, ad-aware, frisky, dwarf tossing, NotLD in Clix

6 years ago - frangible, cej concern, warning labels

7 years ago - weekend coming, I a munchausen by proxy surprise sea monkey, born in the Year of the green fluid love, dodo, purple liquid

Current Mood: chipper
Current Location: 20714
Current Music: George Harrison – My Sweet Lord

Calvert County fair is this weekend... I don't know if I'm up to it, but we can surely check it out.

I haven't eaten anything more solid than blueberry yogurt since Tuesday. I think that I'll be up for something with a bit more texture by the time the weekend is over, though. Tonight's meal of soft noodley-cheesy-tomato-saucy goodness was just right. Salad was a little hard on the throat, but not bad!

Watched Revenge of The Pink Panther with the in-laws and Louise... we quickly crashed out.

Hey! Cthulhu is in the Chesapeake Bay! There's how we can get Colin to visit! :)

Back at work, and Nurse Newton is already back to slacking in the sunbeams.

newtcam92807 - mama opened it up, now bored

1 year ago - nelson sings nilsson, bro foreshadows his current environ, out with gabby and todd, heard from vicki, scary storybook pics, kitty, daily episodes, planning weekend with bhk

2 years ago - put in for the condo, gorilla comic, mugato toy, headstone,esoteric path, international tort, state resources across the board

3 years ago - bro bails, Orks, games removed from the system, walkies pictures, sky railroads, post apoc

4 years ago - Monkeys, Ukes make you brainy, Super-scotto, cracked 100 vamps, dervishes, cartoons, Stridulous.

5 years ago - mary gross, new PG album

6 years ago - robotech, poem, kegel, evil twin, horseman wallpaper, newtcam, enlightenment, Steve Irwin, adipocere, Mango

7 years ago - work drags, missing folks, time-variance/generation gap

Extra-Random very rough draft entry. Read at own risk, dear journal.

Current health issues - getting corrected a little at a time

Allergies - need to get blood work done in top of October for shots
Teeth - Bridge for broken tooth, and 2 fillings. Floss, kids!
Back-leg ortho workup.

Monday night after our appointments, BHK, Chris, Larry and I all met at the Lebanese Taverna for Half-price Mondays... yum on the falafel!

I also got a new shirt for work at good ol' Value City - White with blue pinstripes.

Tonight after work there was a big traffic slowdown...Suitland was a parking lot, and all of i-4 was shut by police and helicopters. A cursory search online mentioned no specifics, and the traffic radio was of little detail as well. I wonder what was up? Chris speculated terrorist stuff, but there was really no hint as to what it might be at all. I made it to Tina's about 30 minutes later than usual. When I realized I wasn't going to be there by 7:15, I called and they ate ahead of me.. I got there in time to watch the last half of Gilmore Girls - BHK and Tina set tentative plans for a girls trip sometime in the near future.

This weekend, BHK and I will be taking a little day trip somewhere... maybe West Virginia to see the mountains, maybe Outpost Games, possibly both on different days.

We still haven't been back to the Compleat Strategist... I want to give 'em a second chance, but it might be a while... too many other places to go and see.

Graffiti seen when we went to the movies last weekend -

Robot of love - says hate
(he cannot be fully erased!)

Boy says bait?

That rhymes!

1 year ago - pom, apples and limeade, GP ahooga, close to the edit, burrito/screech butt, god lj, more ernesto a-comin'!

2 years ago - katrina track, toyota safe vs falling knives, brothers grimm, eco footprint, The Outbursts of Everett True , caffeinated death quiz, cat toy, superheroes and goats, office has no juice

3 years ago - on call all weekend, cej packet returned, super hero movies, charities, spectral analysis

4 years ago - begging for freebies, cases, frankie, wifi, paper toys

5 years ago - comic book ads, genetic ID card, lifegems, happy tree friends, Bheesh got a vette, free fonts, and Pynchon paper dolls

6 years ago - sci-fi dorkness (pity enterprise is so bad), red headed wildcat, bacchanalia, ultima Thule, stinky cab driver, lj "post limit hububb"

7 years ago - zoo day, de-compartmentalized some pals, Brown, turtle

Current Mood: full
Current Location: 20714
Current Music: Brains/Looks lets make lots of money in my head.

Sunday morning started with more reading, and a repeat of BHK napping a little bit while I played Pyramids and Dominoes with EM. Once we were all cleaned up and ready, we toddled off to Chris and Larry's for a tasty breakfast of Belgian waffles w/ ice cream and fresh made strawberry syrup - Em ate 6 or 7 pieces of bacon, and a whole waffle! That little critter can *eat*!

Post breakfast gluttony, (see photos), we headed down to the Bay to take a moment to search for fossils - - Emily got a lovely little bag of shark's teeth and shells to take back with her.

At about 1, it was time to head out for our rendezvous with Misti at the Arby's - a reasonable halfway point between our homes (approximately an hour drive for each). during the drive, we saw quite a bit of Amish country, down to several Horse-drawn carriages - apparently you can pass them on a double-lined highway, unlike normal cars. A pretty broad assortment of them were out and about, covered and uncovered, families and older couples.

After lunch and switching Em's car seat to Misti's truck, we encountered two stray cats lurking around the parking lot.

After a little deliberation, we decided to take them someplace safer, either a no-kill shelter, home with us, or at least to a region without as much high-speed car traffic nearby. They're Brother and sister, I think, and about four months old.

We did have to name 'em, rather than just boy or girl -

Ripley - White and tan little guy (Named for a place that has a bit of meaning for us - see also ) The little lover... all about snuggles and purrs.

Pomonkey - Longhair Tabby female, looks like a "what if Pye and Newt had a daughter" Hair length and ear-wispies of pye, with Newt's markings. (Name based on a city's name I learned a while back and haven't stopped enjoying yet) Super curious, purrs easily, too.

After taking them to the vet to be tested for Feline Leukemia (and anything else that might hurt Pye and/or Newt), they came home with us to stay in the guest bathroom. We located a good foster home for them both, and I don't think either one will have any trouble being adopted.

While we'd love to keep them, we just don't have the ability to do so in a good way. I really wish that we could... makes me want to own a barn a mile away from anywhere, just so we can have a homestead with a bunch running around.

Since we waited at the vets for about 5 hours (emergency room for animals - triage... the kitties were pretty dang healthy except for ear mites, so other, more urgent cases had priority.)

We watched the Meteor shower for about 3 minutes until we both got super sleepy, and had to head to bed. Caught a few shooting stars, though!

1 year ago - giraffe graffiti, giganta, danny talks to doug, I talk to GP, green wifi, Bob Ross feeds a Squirrel, starshine

2 years ago - Lesbian movie scenes, student aid, the goon & pie, lisas go to TX, Harry Potter, everything can change, wirehog

3 years ago - Bro's sentencing, EN makes a good impression (other guy fizzed out), Daredevil question, Koko wants a dentist, Tropical Storm

4 years ago - muttonhead, rain, flash, dan at school, voodoo 4, lychee yum, walking stick self defense, ati multi monitor life, noisy neighbors

5 years ago - spiders on drugs, Uzumaki, me and newt's custom HC dials, goodies for Kev's sis, bear teeth, a moment of Zen

6 years ago - utility kilt, uncle bill, intrepid

7 years ago - first online radio(broken), food out with Danny, made the "decaf espresso=kissing your sister" joke, Hollow man

Current Mood: accomplished
Current Location: 20714
Current Music: purrrrrr

Yesterday, I forgot to mention that I received Martian coasters, filler colors of icehouse stashes, and other ordered loot. I'm looking forward to playing them with BHK at our earliest convenience.

Awoke early - about 6:45 on a Saturday. EM was up at about 6:30, I think.

Read in bed:

Olivia - classic. Olivia would be Eloise, if Eloise were a pig. She is good at singing 40 very loud songs and is very good at wearing people out. And scaring the living daylights out of her little brother, Ian, particularly when he copies her every move. She is also quite skilled at reproducing Jackson Pollock's "Autumn Rhythm #30" on the walls at home. When her mother tucks her in at night and says, "You know, you really wear me out. But I love you anyway," Olivia precociously pronounces, "I love you anyway too."
Ain't gonna Paint No more - pretty spiffy, good rhythm, color and song.
93 in my family Now *that*'s a fun kids book. Reads well, stuff to look at on every page, terribly cute, and gives a message that's neat, too. Plus, a carsick hamster named Ed. We need more like this one.
Where Have The Unicorns Gone? - Lovely Art, poorly written - it just doesn't flow.

BHK was tuckered out, and fell back asleep about midway through Olivia, so Em and I got up after reading and made necklaces with wooden beads and string from Em's kit - very pretty stuff.

Played some simple stacking and lining up games with dominoes and red & blue icehouse pyramids with Em while BHK slept - may have developed the seed of a new game! Stacking Pyramids on top of a domino board to collect points. Needs a little work, but if I can teach the basics to a 4-year-old and it's challenging to me, there could be a fun concept waiting to burst out.

Once BHK woke up, we all got cleaned up and headed out to take care of TM's kitties (see picture in yesterday's post ).

After many kitty snuggles, we all went to the marine museum to see the otters and the stingrays - it was also a Cradle of the Invasion day - folks dressed in garb of 1812, WWII, and modern style, showing how Marines in wartime lived and worked in the area. pretty neat. Apparently, in the 30s-40s, Tropical chocolate was mixed with paraffin wax so it wouldn't melt... the K rations had basically a chocolate candle to eat along with government supplied cigarettes. Lots of items about amphibious warfare that didn't interest Em too much, but I'd like to go back next time and spend a little while talking to the folks and getting some perspectives on things. My Grandfather on my mom's side was a Marine during WWII, and he never really talked too much about it, short of taking me to the VFW and hanging out with other vets. (That's where I got my first Shirley Temple.)

[edit - I forgot that we went to the amish market, and saw ducks and geese and chickens and goats and puppies and horses, and amish folks, and bought gingerbread and blueberry jam, and lemon meringue pie for Larry, and shoo-fly pie for us, and peppers to stuff with yum! - Sakes, we were busy]

Getting close to Lunch, so we headed off to Burt's [Edit - dang, why do I always call it Fred's?] for veggie burgers (em got popcorn shrimp) - good stuff, but I suspect the kids meal had more food than our veggie burger platter! We got puzzle place mats and crayons so we could color while we waited for our food.

Went to Aardvarks to pick up Early American Chrononauts (and ice cream - Play-doh is still my favorite... vanilla ice cream dyed bright yellow with red and blue chunks of sugar cookie dough mixed in. ) I suspect that I like Early American more than standard Chrononauts.

Chris and Larry's for Dinner - Hot Dogs on the Grill, beans, slaw, and all sorts of yum. BHK had to duck out and tend to Tina's Kitties again while Chris, Larry, Em and I hung out and chitty-chatted. Emily was very well behaved, and barely persnickety or bossy at all. She played very nicely with Tigger for hours.

Quote of the night was by Em - "I would never hurt beautiful Uncle Scott!"

Full and happy we all came home and crashed out.

Before I bail: a meme from Tarpo -

THE RULES:

1. Leave me a comment saying anything random, like your favorite lyric to your current favorite song. Or your favorite kind of sandwich. Something random.
Whatever you like.

2. I respond by asking you five personal questions so I can get to know you better.

3. Update your LJ with the answers to the questions.

4. Include this explanation and offer to ask someone else in the post.

5. When others comment asking to be asked, you will ask them five questions.

Mine were -

1) Where did you meet your girl? Livejournal, actually - Sixish years ago, at least, when I was dating someone else. I think that I traded up nicely.

2) Is Newt still a vicious man-eater? He can be pretty aggressive to some folks, and a love to others. He hasn't seen any Newfs lately, but he still attacks most smokers with great vigor.

3) Recommend 3 fairly cheap 2 player, easy to learn, fun games that are outside the normal Milton Bradley/Hasbro line. Well, you already know about Fluxx and Carcassone, so I'll toss out Treehouse at about $10, you can't go too far wrong (see links above) (which is a gateway drug to other fun games, too) and Chrononauts, also linked above, a little bit more pricey at $20, (with both games the more the merrier, but two can play handily.)

4) Without sounding offensive and I hope you don't take this in the wrong way at all.. Has anyone ever mentioned that there is more than a slight resemblance between my Ex Wife and your Current Wife? Short of this question, nobody has... From what I can recall of her face, I don't really see the resemblance! Eyes, nose, facial shape, hair and skin all seem pretty different to me!

5) Suggest something for a future DoWhatIDo
How about a picture of a favorite item, like a toy or book?

1 year ago - thread tracking, mallah/brain, sistine ceiling full view, 330 mpg car under $20k, hardest geometry problem in the world,

2 years ago - Delirium box, laundry good deed, matches, chain reaction game, Friday 5, autostitch pic, 200 e Broward pic

3 years ago - hr tag abandonment,Doug / tony memory trick, factoids about me, elevator breaks

4 years ago - Neverwhere, childhood memories circa '74-75ish - lunch and Tonka toys,linked to hulk's blog, bro stuff, Elvis & his prosthetic limb factory

5 years ago - Spanish TV, broken links, new he-man cartoon, mark quits FMM before he's caught stealing, puppy pictures and palm doodles.

6 years ago - Soylent Green Tea Ice Cream at the Frieze in Miami, after seeing Kiss of the Dragon with my bro, cavort, first exp w/ Samurai Jack, Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird

7 years ago - saw the hollow man, and played Everway, day before sleep study

Current Mood: cheerful
Current Location: 20714
Current Music: 654321 I am slowly going crazy

After work last night, BHK and I had dinner at the Lebanese Taverna and then went to see Talk To Me which was surprisingly better than I thought. No roles were stepped on by big names (Cedric the Entertainer had me a little worried when I saw him in the credits) Some aspects of Petey Greene's life were left out, but you really can only do so much in a 2-hour movie. Plot-wise, there weren't any surprises, but the story's path seemed comfortable with simple viability. Though it was supposed to have taken place in DC, the bulk seems to have been shot in "generic city" or indoors - I didn't get the Capitol vibe from the location. I'm glad we opted for that over The Simpsons or Transformers... I was more in the mood for a biopic than cartoony smash-em-up or yuk-em-ups.

On the way home, BHK pointed out to me that someone stole the man atop ATW hardware... now there's a sign. "Return the Man now - Yes it was stolen)

Aww... I hope he makes it back... I rather like the weird little dioramas up on the roof.

I discovered the Vassal game engine. That should help with development of our own games, in addition to allowing a lot of regular new ones to try! Maybe I can lure Eryx into playing Axis and Allies minis online! All of the Carcassone variants appear to be done already, too.

Other Vassal modules that tickle my interest are -

All will be sniffed over in time, I'm sure - and now, the morning brings a new day. My ride to the train station overslept, but bhk got me to the station in fine time to catch my train into the city. That's the good thing about planning ahead and making allowances for traffic and whatnot... I'm usually in by 8am, and this way, I got there by 8:30 (the time I'm officially due to arrive.) I did miss my "arrive by 8" bus by about 10 minutes, so I spent about 20 minutes waiting for the next one. - Gave me time to take the pictures below and write the text above on my phone.

Waiting for the bus.

Squinty due to sleepiness and the sun in my face. I like the metro worker behind me with the long beard and short hair. The Sun was hot, and seemed overly large as it hung in this morning's sky.

Good meeting at work today about upgrading our CMS. I like the way folks are looking to work together for a solution, rather than complain - project appears to be slated for the end of '07, or the beginning of '08 for testing.

Constellation Power has applied to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to put a new nuclear reactor in Calvert county, the fourth to be applied for, nationwide, this year. There hasn't been a new nuclear reactor built in the US since the Three Mile Island disaster, but with new tax incentives for power providers who get their applications complete before the end of next year, companies are positioning themselves to be able to take advantage of the new situation.

Are we ready for nuclear again? The US kind of freaked out after the Three Mile Island near-meltdown and the Chernobyl disaster, but with power needs proving insatiable, and with fossil fuels being subject to significant negative public attention due to global warming concerns, the timing could be ripe for an expansion of nuclear power.

Will it do anything to lower our power build? Almost certainly not. But, it might decrease dependence on fossil fuels, which can be considered a positive.

Tonight, I'm tucking in early to recoup a little extra rest.

1 year ago - paperclips, cross-dressing crooks, reading Pride and Prejudice, I predict a riot, good talking to folks, writely (now google docs)

2 years ago - sick of summer heat, paper robots!, spiffy car, where do they make balloons?, animal crackers, ADP nearly nailed, bugs bunny, heart shaped land, baron von bludd

3 years ago - sleepy, meeting, a year at current gig, 5 senses, scarecrow, codecs, game-dancing, oh danny bot, land of many colors, rain and running newtie-pic

4 years ago - bidet poll, food, vamp game, first gig paid poorly, games on the website

5 years ago - talked to rob (we never got together), baron von bludd, strange black blobs

6 years ago - rainy, Owen Ng, broken drug war link, Thunderstorm, code red, lord humongous

7 years ago - Finished HP2, started hp3, foodies, moved to the 12-8 shift at IMT

Current Mood: sleepy
Current Location: 20714
Current Music: my super sweet 16 being sung by bhk

Today was pretty full of activity. In a nutshell: 2 more Zagat locations (Davis' Pub was also in the guide) - Jalapeno's (outstanding food - limited lunch menu, but the dinner looks amazing Tapas works no matter when) and Sputnik Cafe. (good cocktails and dessert, OK entrees) in between those two (lunch and dinner), we went for a little road trip to Gibson Island between shopping for a couch and our quest for Giant Diet Grape soda. Gibson Isle was a bit of a disappointment, with no Gibson girls in sight... worse yet, it was a private island, so no lookie-looing for BHK and yours truly, dear journal.

Today was the Wedding of Fred to Adam's mom... supposedly lucky due to the 7/7/7 activity, but I don't know... hopefully it'll work for 'em, but the odds are rough on a couple who have collectively four divorces behind them already. Lots of fireworks due to the abundance of weddings so close to the 4th of July... we still have a boatload to set off for Louise and Adam's B'day coming up next week.

We *were* successful in locating about a dozen or so diet grape sodas... we'll miss 'em when they're discontinued. There is something magical about purple soda that fizzes bright blue... and tastes really, really good for a diet drink. BHK will miss it more than I shall - I'm perfectly content with Diet Cream soda and Diet Cherry/Cola whatever. (Currently, Dr Pepper cherry vanilla is my fave, but BHK is partial to the diet cherry Pepsi) I wonder what medieval man would think of such stuff... too sweet by far, I suspect. I'm still amazed at refrigeration... the easy access to ice and cooling makes life so much more simple.

The couch-quest goes even on... the holy trinity of color/size/design continues to elude us.

Several Groundhogs sighted in the fields during the day, and many will-o-wisp dragonflies at twilight. Oh! that reminds me!

This friendly little guy was crawling up my sleeve yesterday - probably dropped on me from the shade tree. I wonder what sort of bug he is? He was pretty gigantic, maybe as long as my thumb, though not nearly as wide. I like his little "eye-spots" quite a lot... when I gently brushed him off into the parking lot, he didn't flap his wings - just sort of plummeted to the pavement with an audible smack. I was worried he had been broken as a result, but he seemed perfectly content to walk away as we drove off in the direction of the Kwik-E-Mart.

Since I haven't uploaded the K-E-M pics yet, have some assorted pictures from the 4th.

Featured are - Bugah with a machine gun, assorted fireworks and the barge, Em, Jimmy, BHK and me, Adam, some wandering girls that know Jimmy and Adam, Flowers from our garden, assorted Bugah-fish-catches, and duckies. Not necessarily in that order. Also visible here.

1 year ago - prepping for keys launch, first pirates sea monster, a Brain in a jar quoting Nietzsche to a Super-intelligent Gorilla, phone breaks, questions-meme,

2 years ago - busy, tiny text, hurricanes gone?, pedometer, one, london explosions, waterspoits, 48 questions

3 years ago - condo bid, There-updated, MORE vizcaya pictures, pelvic thrust stormtrooper, spidey2, @ poll

4 years ago - Frankie, restoration of library, lovejoy, danny, lj-interests, health, baby tats

5 years ago - Newt (

jamacianjungle dreamed that she got to play with him!), palm entry, grim reaper song

6 years ago - wereturtle, moved into new place

7 years ago - wereturtle, moved into new place

Current Mood: bouncy
Current Location: 20714
Current Music: beach stuff - motown

Restless night sleeping, accidentally booted Newt off the bed once, but he stuck with me throughout the night. BHK was restless too, but I didn't leg-sweep her out. Pye visited briefly, but high-tailed it after the barest commotion. I dreamt that BHK and I were hunting animals, tagging them for reference, and re-releasing 'em into the wild. A side effect of geocaching, perhaps?

Bugah & Neil went fishing - to no avail, as the water was too choppy.

Half day tomorrow! North Beach Fireworks are going to be something else!

via jwz - Search for Lonesome George mate is long shot

While scientists search for a mate for "Lonesome George" -- the last known survivor of a species of Galapagos tortoise -- some say the effort to fend off extinction may be in vain. Even if a mate is found, George has not been interested in reproducing in the past and may not know how, former keepers and others who have worked with him said.
"He has problems ... he probably never saw a female and male of his own species reproducing," said Swiss biologist Sveva Grigioni, who worked with George 13 years ago.

Grigioni, now back in Switzerland, said she could normally get tortoises to ejaculate within minutes, but spent months manually stimulating George and never extracted semen from him.

Age is not George's problem. He is estimated at between 60 and 90 years old, and could live to be 200 and still reproduce, scientists say.

The visual differences in tortoises from different islands were among the features of the Galapagos that helped 19th Century British naturalist Charles Darwin formulate his theory of evolution. Since then, the tortoises have been hunted by pirates for their meat and their habitat eaten away by goats introduced onto the islands. George, who weighs 198 pounds, was found on Pinta in 1971.

Reviewing Openads for the company's ad server for the web. it seems pretty reputable and reliable, thus far.

Fire drill this morning was a welcome break in the day - cool outside, everyone seemed laid back and calm - helped move the rest of the time that much more rapidly. the 2pm meeting went well... lots of good information for me to ruminate over the next few projects. I really dig that I'm in an environment that will allow me to use the skills I have! (Last gig wasn't bad, but a lot of repetition. This time, there's a lot of room for creative thought along with brute force.

Day closed with S'mores over a fire pit, some preview fireworks, and then Bugah and I played a bit of "Destroy All Humans". Not a bad thing.

Current Location: 20714

We spent most of the day out and about, Geocaching with the Newsoms. They're really into it, with a little over 100 finds in recent memory. It was fun tooling around a bit and seeing what's what. I also dropped off tinkle pig in a cache... time for her to see the world. I retrieved a toy soldier cast from civil war bullets, who will ride with Bruce Moose and Gaytor until a suitable resting ground is found for him. The cemetary caches are almost always my fave - the woods were a hoot too, but ticks are a real fear for the kids, especially since Em was out sick just recently. (Heck, nobody wants lyme disease.)

A brief synopsis of Cache visits-

	placed Hula Wyvern (Travel Bug Dog Tag) in Little Southern Maryland School	[visit log]
	placed "Wajima, Japan" Unite for Diabetes Travel Bug (Unite for Diabetes Travel Bug) in Little Southern Maryland School	[visit log]
	found Little Southern Maryland School (Traditional Cache)	[visit log]
	found Parkkin Cache (Traditional Cache)	[visit log]
	found Flashover (Traditional Cache)	[visit log]
	found Can you see the ghost?! Again! (Traditional Cache)	[visit log]
	found Relaxation for Redlights (Traditional Cache)	[visit log]
	found Book Worm (Traditional Cache)	[visit log]
	found Time is the key (Traditional Cache)	[visit log]

Aftwerwards, we took a quick pitstop at Aardvarks, had an ice cream and picked up kanoodle for BHK (I'm sure I'll be playing it too.)

Spent a little more time puttering around Solomon's Island, went to Stoneys for dinner. (their treat! yum!)

On the road between points, I got a call from my Mom, and it turns out that Bro isn't in a work crew, but just a rehabilitation center. Taking classes, etc. Hopefully some of the lessons will stick, but if not, at least he's out of circulation for a while.

After that, we paused at the Barker's to water the Mom-in-Law's plants, and to do a little dock-walking. I paused for a breather upstairs, but before I could get my nap on, Adam and Kendall showed up to say hi and to drop off some fireworks.

Man pummels vampire peacock

NEW YORK (AP) -- A peacock that roamed into the parking lot of a Burger King in New York City was beaten by a man who insisted it was a vampire.
Animal control officials in Staten Island say the bird was beaten so fiercely that most of its tail feathers fell out and it had to be euthanized.

The seven-year-old male peacock wandered into the restaurant parking lot and perched on a car hood last week. Charmed employees had been feeding it bread when the man appeared.

A restaurant worker says the man grabbed the bird by the neck, hurled it to the ground and started stomping it. She says when he was asked what he was doing, he responded, "'I'm killing a vampire!"'

Employees called police, but the man ran when he saw them.