Monday, May 19, 2008

Geek Humor

Anyone who knows me will agree I'm a geek. I love things like this binary clock, t-shirts like this (my brother has one with some complicated calculus on it, that I think has to do with light, but I don't remember), or this graph, so naturally I found this comic hysterical. Thanks, John.

Sunday, May 18, 2008

Making Dinner

Dawn very nicely gave me some extra time today to go to breakfast with John & Darryl, to take a nice long ride with John, and to get one of my bikes over to the shop. Since I didn't get her a chance to take a nap, I figured the least I could do was make whatever she wanted for dinner. We had already been planning on BBQing something.

What would you like me to make for dinner?

Hmmm....

I make a mean Lanesplitter Pizza.

Ooh! I could go for a Lanesplitter Pizza!

Saturday, May 17, 2008

Random Reminiscence

Today at the end of dinner, for some reason, Rachel went about getting ready for bed walking backwards. This reminded Dawn of a great old story from when Rachel was maybe 2 at most. As many toddlers do, Rachel would not just sit down on a lap or a chair, she would get in position somewhat in front of the thing she meant to sit on and back up to it before sitting down. At some point, Dawn started saying beep beep beep as Rachel was backing up, imitating the often annoying reverse alarms on many trucks. This was far too amusing to be annoying, of course, especially when one day, in front of Dawn's father, Rachel did it herself!

Misplaced

Our next door neighbor works on cars. He loves working on cars, as many people do. Of course, he doesn't limit it to cars. He drives a large Dodge pickup with a huge tow hitch and a lumber rack. He modified both the Dodge (and at least one of its predecessors) and their family Jetta to take biodiesel. As a contractor, the Dodge comes in handy, but he also owns at least a couple of other vehicles, including a dump truck and a little bobcat. We often joke when he shows up with something new. Yesterday, when we came home there was a big-rig tractor in front of his house, with the hood open. A new toy? No, he's just helping a friend work on it.

Around 10:30 last night, as Dawn, Darryl & I were finishing watching something we heard the loud clang of a large piece of metal falling on the ground. I said "Good night, X", and went out to tease him about it.

He commented that he hoped the truck wasn't as loud as his (the aforementioned Dodge, which can typically be heard from at least a block away), to which I replied that I couldn't imagine that hope being anything but badly misplaced.

Wednesday, May 07, 2008

Geographically Challenged

I have known for a long time, thanks to my mother, how the Federal Interstate Highways are numbers. The major cross-country routes running East-West are numbered 10 to 90, counting by 10, with their numbers increasing South to North, so 10 runs from L.A. to FLA and 80 from S.F. to N.Y. Meanwhile, the major North-South routes are numbered from 5 to 95, also counting by 10, with numbers increasing from West to East, so 5 runs from through California, Oregon and Washington, while 95 runs up the East coast.

This may seem like a non-sequitur, but stick with me.

My wife's cousin's family, including her uncle, are getting ready to move from Grand Junction, CO to Oklahoma City, OK. It sounds like a great opportunity and it is wonderful that Uncle John is going to be living with Jill, Schuyler and their 3 great children. I only wish they were moving toward us instead of further away.

One of the comments I made to Jill was that I don't think I've ever been to OKC. By now, I'm sure I haven't, but at the time I mentioned that if I-80 went through it, then I've been through as my family and I drove across the country on 80 when I was a kid, more than once. Now, if I had remembered, or though about, the fact that Oklahoma is immediately to the North of a chunk of Texas, I could easily have figured out that it's not 80 that goes through OKC, but I-40.

Perhaps I better relearn some of my basics before Rachel gets to them in school!

Tuesday, May 06, 2008

Oh, the Irony

The FBI raided the Office of the Special Counsel today as part of an investigation into misconduct and the intimidation of whistle-blowers within said Office. One of the Special Counsel's primary responsibilities is, of course, protection of government whistle-blowers.