Month: July 2008

Artful Dodger

The last few days have been chock full o’ fun, the FRS have lost a bunch of games and Manny Ramirez has been all over the sports pages. There has been plenty of trade talks, Boston and Florida, then Boston and Florida and Pittsburgh. I left work at 4 PM, which was the trading deadline, and there were still conflicting reports – it was going to happen, it wasn’t going to happen. I got home at 4:30 and there was still nothing new.

I was finishing up painting in the middle bedroom around 6 o’clock when Donna came in and said, “Your friend is going to Los Angeles.” At first I thought Angels? No, it had to be the Dodgers and it was. I’ll let the real sports nuts debate over which team got the best part of the deal or the worse part of it, but right now looking at FRS left fielders, new and old, if both players continue at their present production, it looks like a wash. Player to front office relationship has improved, but, more importantly, how it will effect the clubhouse, ask me in a month.

As a fan, I will definitely miss the Manny Being Manny moments, it was nice to see someone enjoy baseball as a game, but for every phone call from the wall during pitching changes there seemed to be a missed game due to “injury” or misplayed ball in left.

Have fun in LA Manny.

Started down, went up, back down, still down.
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Looks Like It Is Coming Down On Lansdowne Street

This used to be my Windows wallpaper, until the 6th inning of tonight’s game when the Angels scored 5 runs. The FRS dropped 2 of 3 to the MFY over the weekend and it looks like they are going to be swept by LA in this 3 game series. Both Tampa and NY won earlier today, so in just a few more minutes the Red Sox will be three games out of first and only one game ahead of the Yanks. Oh, well, at least I’m not a Braves fan (sorry Mark.)

Started up, went down, went up, back down, still down.
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In The Navy You Can Sail The Seven Seas

Somewhere along the line today we got in a discussion on Naval ceremonies in general and crossing lines in particular. Myself being a trusty Shellback could expound on what happens when you cross the zero line of longitude, but came up empty on what happens as you cross 00 or 180 latitude.

A quick search of the net came up with Golden Dragon which is described as a sailor who has crossed the Prime Meridian or the International Date Line into the Eastern Hemisphere. If you happen to cross the International Dateline and the Equator at the same time you become a Golden Shellback. As you can see from my card I missed that honor by quite a bit.

Besides Shellback & Golden Dragon, you are a Blue Nose for crossing the Arctic Circle, a Frozen Stiff for crossing the Antarctic Circle and a Mossback for sailing around Cape Horn.

In the search I found a few places that listed Naval jargon or slang and was transported 30 years into the past. Here are a couple of my favorites (and are suitable for general audiences):
Bug Juice: Kool-Aid-like beverage in dispensers on the messdeck.
Hollywood Shower: to take a long shower that wastes water.
Snipes: Sailors assigned to the Engineering rates, i.e. Machinists Mates, Boilermen, etc.
and Rent-A-Crow: Term for a sailor advanced to E-4 because they graduated top of their “A” school class. The Navy ‘rents’ them for an extra year in return for being promoted. (I was one of these.)

There are plenty more HERE, HERE and HERE. Including a whole slew of the more “colorful” ones.

Started up, went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 269

Mixmaster

Well I finally got around to starting to paint the walls in the middle bedroom tonight. Got a wall and a half painted before giving up.

Donna originally wanted me to paint it the same color as the other green bedroom, but I didn’t have enough paint to do it. Trying to not buy another gallon of paint, she then suggested I used the color from the hallway. I didn’t want to do that, I barely like it in the hallway, its too light, I wanted something darker. Then I had an idea, I could take some of the other cans of paint I have and pour parts into the really light green and maybe come up with something suitable.

I added what little I had left of the other green bedroom color. I poured in a heaping dose of a forest green that was used in one of the bathrooms (prior to remodeling). Then I tossed in a few dollops of a a sort of olive green that was used on the lower kitchen cabinets. Almost there, it just needed to be a little darker. I added a pinch of some flat black I had used for the interior of the fireplace a long while back. I now a full gallon of a nice green that looked real close to what was in the existing green bedroom. Perfect.

I used a small brush to cut in all the edges and corners. When I started using the roller I was getting black dots at intervals. Ack! Somehow the black paint had coagulated into little beads of black that were invisible in the tray or can, but when rolled on the wall they left behind little black spots. I found that when they popped up I could spot them on the roller and then kind of disperse them using a small brush loaded with paint from the tray. Then with careful reapplication I could blend the paint on the wall to make them disappear (I thought.) After a dinner break I went back in to start painting again, but now that the paint had dried I could see that where I thought the black dots had vanished, they had actually been sort of spread out real good.

Tomorrow after work we are going to stop at Home Warehouse Store and pick up a gallon of paint, so I can start over.

Started down, went up, still up.
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I Can’t Watch

After the the last two games, I just can’t watch tonight’s game on ESPN. That it is raining in Boston and the game is going to start an hour later at 9:00 PM (so they claim), so that I won’t be able to see but a couple of innings before having to retire for the evening, makes it easier.

We watched the final stage of the Tour de France today and I will be glad not having to the see that block of commercials anymore.

So now the cable box and it’s myriad of channels with nothing interesting to watch goes back tomorrow. This year was a big disappointment as there wasn’t one movie worth watching on Starz or Encore during the whole month.

My wife has the remote and she is watching The Next Food Network Star and during commercials she hops over to E! to see Denise Richards: It’s Complicated. I think I would be happier watching the FRS getting the crapola beat out of them by the MFY. At least she has stopped checking in on Richard Gene Simmons Family Jewels…

Started up, went down, still down.
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Cannonball

Today was the MMC’s annual Pool Party and as always at these Miata Club functions I consumed a lot of food. And even though I participated in (and won) the Biggest Splash Competition, heavyweight division, Cannonball style, I didn’t expend as many calories diving as I took in eating.

I didn’t even break out my camera, but someone else took a bunch and promised to email them around. If any of them captured me making big splashes in full glory, I’ll post them here for your enjoyment, until then, please enjoy this little animated gif file from the turn of the century.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 265

Ecks Philes Moo V

Of the 4 movies we have seen this summer I’d have to say that I Want To Believe notches in just ahead of Wall-E, a long way down from Iron Man, but miles ahead of Indiana Jones. The only reasons it did beat out Wall-E was because the last third of that animated flick disappointed compared to the beginning and I’m an X-Files fan from way back. When friends asked at dinner tonight how we liked it, both Donna and I said, “Go see it if you were a fan of the series.”

It was great to see the old familiar faces of Scully and Mulder together again, but it has been too long. This is the move they should have made a half a decade ago, a year after the series ended it’s TV run. It was definitely better than 1998’s Fight the Future which suffered from the same malady as the Firefly movie, Serenity, it was too movie-ish. I Want To Believe was more true to it’s television roots, it is almost quiet, there were zero explosions, nary a gunshot and the only chase sequence was on foot. But it did include lots of scary moments, a few very squeamish moments, a “paranormal” plot, some Scullyisms and Mulderisms and just enough tips of hat to the characters old familiar quirks to make it worth the matinee admission price.

There certainly wasn’t a lot of pent up demand to see this movie, like there was for Batman, because we went to the first showing ever for this theater at 11:30 in the morning and there were just 15-20 seats occupied.

The Picasa/Google map of the bike ride home wasn’t as interesting as I thought it might be, take a LOOK for yourself.

Started up, went down, back up, back down, still down.
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