The whirlwind Florida trip

We had a great time on our whilrwind trip back to Florida.

It was a little rough starting out – Owen graced us with a present no more than a couple miles out the door, and we had nothing to clean it up. We stopped at an old auto parts store and a kind man gave us some old towels. Next, we realized that we didn’t have enough working cigarette lighter outlets for the cooler AND the VCR, both of which were absolutely necessary for survival on the 12-hour trip. So we had to stop at another auto parts store, and pick up a lighter y-adapter. By that time it started pouring out, and I blew a fuse plugging the cooler in in the rain. Back to the parts store! Bought a pack of fuses, figured out the fuse system on the van, and got it all humming – we even got an extra-large pack of shop towels to finish cleaning up after Owen.

Once we got out of town, we drove straightaway to Disneyworld without any more real hitches. We arrived at the Park the next day for beautiful weather and short lines – the week before Thanksgiving is a great time to go. Lunch at Tony’s was fantastic – the vinagrette glaze was to die for. We finished the day with some great fireworks.

The next day we headed deep down south into Florida to see all our kin. It was great to catch up with everybody. Dan, Corey and I stayed up into the night playing Jedi Academy every chance we got.

After the days in Fort Myers flew by, we headed up to see Andrea’s dad in St. Pete. It was good to catch up with him, too.

I’m sure there’s more I’m missing from all the time this site’s been down. I’ll try to add more here as my feeble brain recalls it… after all, that’s why I do this blog thing – write it all down, or it’s lost to me forever! :P

HTHAM: The Grapes of Frath

The neighborhood got together for a “How To Host A Murder” party on New Year’s Eve, aka Larry’s birthday. It was a hit! Larry stormed around as the captain, yelling “don’t call it a boat, it’s not a boat, it’s a ship!” and “I don’t remember what I was doing, I was drunk at the time…”. Scott was decked out in a racing jacket and gloves, and Greg played out the accusatory investment banker perfectly. All the ladies were “dressed to kill”, which played out perfectly, as they all ended up running brothels or being romantically linked to the deceased.

To cap it all off, the role of the murdered host was played by none other than… Michael Jackson. Perfect casting!

Everybody had a blast, and we hope to do it again some time soon.


Heroes Incorporated

Sammy, a good friend of mine from way, way, way back in the salad days of high school, made his fortune, and nearly lost his sanity, producing The Two Towers video game for Electronic Arts (yes, “that” TTT). Hurling himself from the jaws of the corporate grind, he “quit the biz” and decided to pursue a true passion of his, creating his own board game. He’s been working hard on it for a while, and it’s looking great.

He chatted me up the other day to bounce around some ideas for a tagline for the game, which has a theme of superheroes fighting crime whilst simultaneously soliciting the funds needed to keep at it as a full time profession. I immediately thought “let’s extend ‘crime doesn’t pay’ in some way”, but we just couldn’t shorten it up enough.

Sam: Like, “crime doesn’t pay, but Heroes Incorporated does!”, only, not stupid…

Then he hit the nail on the head… check out the Quest Machine website for the answer to the perfect tagline!

Saddam Hussein Captured Ordering Dominos

Ken wants to set up a blog, I thought maybe I could run it for him. Look at the potential!!

etterman writes “Saddam was captured on December 13 by US Special Forces. The US Intelligence intercepted a cell phone call to the Tikrit Dominos on Tigris Blvd. Saddam ordered a plain chesse pizza (large) under his own name. U.S. forces converged on the crawl space in which Saddam was hiding, reportedly Saddam opended the door in response to a U.S. Military personnel yelling “Dominos”.”

Dogproofing the cat litterbox room

Our most recently inducted family members Julian and Simon, being feline, desired a place to discretely excrete. But our dogs wanted none of that! Thinking fast, I recollected the experiences of our good friends and “cat people”, brother and sister Ken Etterman and Kimberly Welch. Both have had DECADES of feline/canine interaction experience in a full house environment, leading them to the same conclusion:

THE DOGPROOFED CAT LITTERBOX!

Hopefully all this experience can be leveraged for the masses! So without further ado, the DOGPROOFED CAT LITTERBOX HOWTO:

Step 1: Pick a room with a door for the litterbox. Any room will do, as long as it’s OK to always keep the dogs out of it.
Step 2: Attach a small hook to the inside of the door frame, as such:




Step 3: Tie a slipnot in a thick short string or rope, as such:




Step 4: Tie the other end of the string around the hook, as such:




Step 5: Slip the loop of the string around the doorknob, and adjust the slipnot so that your cat(s), but not your dog(s), can fit through the door, as such:







Step 6: You and the cats can come and go, the dogs are verbotten! Enjoy!

Lan Partython

Thanks again to Jason for hosting anotha LAN, all day long this time. Counterstrike and Diablo ][ devoured the day before we knew what hit us. Chau, Stephen and Brenda, Zac, Jason and Julie, myself and 4 or 5 friends of Chau were in attendance…

Corey on the Linux Party Train

coreyd writes “hey, i am just saying hi from my newly installed Red Hat Linux 8.0, boo ya.

just thought i would say, its time for mike to set me up with a shell account.

:p”

Um, Core, I already gave ya a user/pw… amemba?

WELCOME TO LINUX, PLEASE FASTEN YOUR SEATBELTS
AND KEEP YOUR HANDS INSIDE THE VEHICLE AT ALL TIMES.