Year: 2013

36,000 Words In A Vaguely Familiar Manner

Sunrise

We took little trip down to HHI this weekend to get away from the hectic “big city” and to take some updated photos for the Hilton Head Condo Rentals web site. The above picture is of this morning’s sunrise from the balcony of B327.

While we were down in this neck of the woods we made a side trip to our favorite little book store in a fading outlet mall just south of Savannah. They sell hardcover books that are returned off lease from libraries across the country for just a buck or two. Donna picked up 9 books for herself, a few kids books for the west coast and I found myself eight to read. Total cost was a little over $23.

I’ve read every one of Robert B. Parker’s Spenser novels, but not all of his Jesse Stone books, not recognizing the title of one I found on the shelf, Killing The Blues, I picked it up. When I started reading it this afternoon it had all the usual elements, but it seemed a little off. When I looked closer at the cover I realized why, it said Robert B. Parker‘s Killing The Blues not Robert B. Parker. At the bottom of the cover, under the “A Jesse Stone Novel” line was By Michael Brandman.

With permission from the estate this fellow was allowed to write a new novel using the characters Mr. Parker had created. He has the pedigree, Mr. Brandman supervised the screen plays for three Jesse Stone TV movies, co-wrote three others and was Executive Producer on all 8 of them, but it wasn’t a Parker book. I finished it, but I’m not going to read any more faux Robert B. Parker books. I may take a look at finding some more real Jesse Stone books to read though.

Not far out of town on our way to HHI the Purple Whale passed the 36,000 mile mark.

One Last And Very Troubling Beard Post

$_12

You have until the end of the month to bid on a ball of hair shaved off the face of David Ortiz or Shane Victorino and the razor that did the trimming.

Free shipping and delivery promised for around Christmas! The proceeds go to charity, so all or part may be tax deductible (check with your accountant.)

Bargain hunters should opt for Shane’s beard ball because right now Big Papi’s is going for nearly twice as much as his.

It Is Only A Fantasy

After the early afternoon NFL games Team Wrangler had 10 times as many points as the Purple Whales:
Its Only A Fantasy

After the the late afternoon games the Purple Whales had made a near miraculous comeback to take the lead:
Its Only A Fantasy 2

The lead was guaranteed not to last as Team Wrangler still had 2 players left, one tonight and one more on Monday. But I expected it to last more than 3 minutes into the first quarter on the Sunday Night game. But it was erased by a 54 yard field goal by Denver’s kicker, Matt Prator, which was worth 5 points:
Its A Fantasy 3

The Emperor got a wash yesterday, taken for a nice fall afternoon drive before being hidden away in the garage. The Purple Whale got a bath this afternoon and then huddled under the carport trying to avoid the impending sprinkles.

Brian Bowls 300

300 Game

It only took until the 3rd frame of the 3rd game to get there too!

I got to go Cosmic Bowling. The Valve Store(tm) purchased a lane and the rights to have up to 8 employees bowl for free from 7 to 11. They were having trouble getting volunteers to go and Donna happened to be talking with the ringleader of the event this afternoon and agreed to have the two of us do it.

We got to bowl as much as we wanted, we each were given 2 drink tickets and they had hors d’oeuvre before hand plus nibbles at every lane. Even the shoe rental was free. We ended up with a total of five people bowling, Donna and I, another couple, Heather and Al and one of Donna’s department members, Mary.

There were prizes for the top three scoring teams and a prize for the most spirited. Our team of non-bowlers won nothing, but we did help raise nearly $10,000 for a local children’s charity. All five of us had a great time and I bet all of us will wake up in the morning with a sore shoulder.

There’s Where My Hat Went

My HatI know now why I couldn’t get my choice for Red Sox 2013 World Champions hat. They gave the first ones they had made up to the hoi polloi of the team. Here is the Red Sox chairman, John Henry, wearing my hat during the November 2nd Duck Boat parade through the city streets of Boston.

Seeing ol’ Johnny boy styling the hat fueled my desire for it again, so I went shopping. Just when it seemed like I was out of luck, as it was sold out or not available everywhere I looked, I found it on the site of the manufacturer. It is a one-size-fits-all variation instead of fitted, which I prefer anyway, so I bought one. Let’s see how long it takes to get here.

Weather Takes A Holiday

Image1

When we checked the 10 day weather this afternoon our eyes were immediately drawn to the Wednesday forecast. A high of 47°, a low of 28°! A 60% chance of rain. And underneath the rain cloud there is a little snowflake! Geez, that’s serious February winter weather in November.

After we overcame the shock of that we noticed something curious, there was no Monday weather. No just no weather, but no Monday at all. I guess the weather gets to take a holiday for Veterans Day.

Monday was still gone a couple hours later, so I got curious. I cleared the weather history, deleted any weather related cookies and restarted the browser. Still no Monday. I blew the dust off the shortcut and fired up Internet Explorer. There was Monday. I then compared the web addresses between the two browsers. The missing Monday URL had a b. between www. and weather.com. A little research yielded the answer, the b. signifies a beta page, a place where the Weather Channel folks try out improvements to their site. Something still needs a little more work.