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Chris' Journal
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Below are the 9 most recent journal entries recorded in the "meadmkr" journal:
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08:54 am
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Once or twice per year?
If I use the snowblower to help the neighbors clear their sidewalks does it count as more "days of snow" ? A couple of years ago I bought a decent snowblower which does a pretty good job on regular snow up to about 8" but it isn't self-propelled (big jump in price). The Mrs chuckled about only being able to use it 1-2 times a year so I chimed in that for each neighbor's walk I clear it counts as another day of show! She just rolled her eyes and sais "okay dear"..... I've got to be the luckiest guy in the world as she puts up with my hobbies and 'gadgets'.
Anyway, today is the big day and about noon we are off to Fairfax for my eye appt. I'm a little anxious (not really nervous but not really calm either) as it is my vision after all and being a software tester by trade I can envision all kinds of problems with the computer-controlled Lasik system... If I were really worried I wouldn't be doing this and thousands of folks have had the surgery. Then again the last time I had any type of surgery *knock-wood* was 41 years ago for my tonsils. By this time tomorrow I should be back online typing away (and seeing what I'm typing) sans-glasses!
Current Mood:  anxious
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11:06 pm
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My aching eyes...
Okay, as promised I've got the pics from this past Sunday online. I'm still getting the hang of PBase so bear with me... Oh, the URL is http://www.pbase.com/meadmkr/longwood
Current Location: Dreamland
Current Mood:  sleepy
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05:53 pm
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Best laid plans...
Yesterday I went to the Epson Print Academy over in Crystal City.... Not a bad way to spend the day and even learned a few things in between the Photoshop 'lessons' and salesly pitches/plugs. On the way home via Route 7 I passed Colvin Mill and realized I hadn't been there in a while and it'd be a good chance to get out and take some photos. Fast forward to this morning (Sunday)... Looking at the thermometer showing 34 degrees outside I just grabbed a windbreaker to put over my sweatshirt. Since the mill doesn't open until about noon I grab the camera and tripod and figured I'd try a few macro shots of some of the flowers in bloom. There is a gengle breeze blowing from the back to the front of the yard but still passable conditions. I proceeded to set up to shoots the daffodils blooming in the front beds (south side of the house). The wind is getting a little stronger and I notice the tripod (even though it's set down to about 3') is swaying just a little as well as the wind changes direction is now across the front. What were perfectly still flowers are now swaying like the congregation at a Sunday revival meeting. Not looking good for my plans today but hope the wind dies down by noon. About 11:45 the wind is howling outside the the sunny is shining brightly. Grrrrrrrrr..... Oh well; finally installed the continuous ink system in my printer. Other than a few fingertips stained magenta and cyan it seems to be working pretty well. Buying inkjet cartridges for my Epson is now a thing of the past. [ Take that Gillette! ]
Oh, did I mention Epson representatives did a drawing for a really, really, really nice Epson 4800 which was won by an elderly gentleman that only prints snapsots of his grandkids on his point&shoot camera? Guy had no idea what he was going to do with the printer and even complained that it was too big. Some people's luck!
Current Mood:  bouncy
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11:00 pm
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National Arboretum....
Kiddo (aka Katie aka Katt) has an assignment for her photography class to 'shoot landscapes' so we went up to check out Arlington National Cemetary this morning and headed up to the arboretum afterwards. Despite the traffic headed northbound it only took about 20 minutes drive time considering I've never been there.
Other than misspelling arboretum half the time it is a cool place to spend a few hours. Entering from the New York Ave side is a bit disconcerting as all you see is the old brick yard and a huge parking lot. Drive a few more minutes towards the visitor center and you see more signs of life. There isn't a whole lot in bloom yet but some of the dogwoods and pears are already in bloom. Even so, there is plenty to see and it is a nice place for a picnic. Word of warning; lotsa geese s**t so watch your step. So while everybody is down along the tidal basin it may be a place to check out in the coming weeks.
Next stop the Longwood Gardens...
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07:23 pm
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Grumpy old men (er, man)...
Anybody else get very, very grumpy when they are sick? Started coming down with what I thought was 'just a head cold' Monday but Tuesday it hit hard. Temp was only 97.1 and yes, I took it twice (my normal is 99.1). To make matters worse instead of staying in bed resting had to drive the Mrs back up to Thurmont. It turns out her wallet fell out of her purse at the restraunt up there and her drivers license and CC's were in the purse. Grumble gruble but at least it wasn't rush hour.
Did I mention I hate being sick?
Current Mood:  grumpy
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06:33 pm
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It... has...... begun....
The annual Holiday Baking Marathon that is.... Once again wifey decided to give cookie/goodie boxes to her crew at work this year; so far I count about 55 boxes for her and about 10 for my office. Add a few extra trays and 'dats a bunch o'cookies!'
Gotta make a run to Costco in the morning for 8 dozen eggs and about 12 boxes of butter; still have 20# or so of flour left... Anybody see that FoodNetwork bit on cookies where the woman has a commercial oven and floor-stand mixer? [ drools - gotta get me one of doze! ]
Anybody have good recipes to share?
My favorite biscotti - http://cookie.allrecipes.com/az/DAmarettiBiscotti.asp
Nana's cookie - http://cookie.allrecipes.com/az/AnisetteCookies.asp
[ this isn't my NaNa's (aka nono/granmother) recipe but its very close.
My aunt gave me the recipe for these passed down and I'm finally gonna make 'em this year! ]
Speculaas for kiddo - http://www.cookiemold.com/57-SpeculaasBoards.html
[ stepkiddo's father is Dutch and wanted to try making these for her - if the molds come in soon! ]
Anybody have a reall, really good (tried and true) shortbread recipe to share?
I know they dough is fairly simple but want a proven recipe as time is at a premium.
Any other good cookie recipes to share?
Well, off to mix up a few batches of Nuttella-truffles.... Hopefully I can set a few aside so the gals don't snitch too many of 'em before I can get them into the boxes.
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07:48 pm
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Call me Seymour....
Now I know how Seymour in the "Little Shop of Horrors" must have felt...
I've been getting home later these past few weeks. Now most folks like getting greeted by their pets/family but Coco has decided that he wants to be a herding dog in his next life. He practically herds me over to their food dish to fill it for him!
The other part Seymour-itis is that in setting up a PC-based jukebox I've been (re-)ripping our 300+ CD's to MP3. It seems that most of the time I'm feeding CD's into the drives. Now that I've connected the computer to decent speakers I can hear the difference between some of my older MP3s and ones that I've done recently with better quality..... One thing that I had to chuckle over is that both the CD from Ted Garber and In Our Cups where both found in freedb :)
Now if Santa just reads the email I sent him asking for a touchscreen LCD monitor for the rec-room!
Current Mood: busy
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10:08 pm
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Got DVDs?
Not sure how I did it but screwed up my DVD database when I upgraded DVDProfiler a while back. Finally getting off my arse and getting things back in. For those movie buffs out there check out DVDProfiler from InterVocative.com which makes keeping track of the evergrowing collection. The free version is okay but has small adverts like Eudora but if you register it you can turn 'em off and get an online version of your collection as well. It helps me remember what I've already got so I don't end up with more dups (that I just usually send to my sister anyway)... Oh, if you remember the CueCat that RadioShack used to give away it'll work with any bar code reader for the ISBN's on the box so you don't have to type all of 'em in!
Our collection is at http://www.intervocative.com/DVDCollection.aspx/meadmkr
Now if somebody would just make a CD version with the same type of features!
Current Mood:  curious
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05:25 pm
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Rain, rain, go away (for a little while).....
Weeks and weeks of no/zilch/nada rain and now we get almost 2 straight weeks of this! Six more days until Halloween and the graveyard for Ox Bow Manor still isn't all set up thanks to the weather.
Well, looks like a the gravedigger will be working the midnight shift this week....
Current Mood: grumpy
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