Meet the Beatles

Meet the BeatlesLast night Gnorm went home with his parents, so here is one last photo from when he went it to work with me the other day. Gnorm was totally captivated as the Fab Four played “I Want to be Your Gnome”, “The Gnome on the Hill” & “Hey Gnome” for him.

Three more Spenser paperbacks came in the mail today and I already finished one, The Godwulf Manuscript. It is the first in the Spenser series and while not as polished as the later books, you can definitely see the character in his rough form. Sort of like a wood carving Spenser is working on a couple times in this story.

The MFY lost their second game to the Indians today, digging a big hole for themselves where they will have to win the next three games to advance. As I type this the FRS are trailing 3-2 in the 5th inning to the Angels, and if I had to guess by the way the breaks are going they will end up on the losing side of this game, but I hope I’m wrong.

Started up, went down, back up, down again, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 436

Miata Club Meeting

Gnorm Enjoys A MargaritaThis being the first Thursday of the month it was time for the MMC to hold a meeting. Not usually much of a meeting, brief recap of the last couple of events, brief recap of the next few events and we pick a place to “meet” next month. At least tonight it was at Mi Rancho (guess what kind of restaurant it is) here in Aiken, so Donna and I didn’t have far to drive.

Tuesday night I went over to the cable company office and swapped out my modem. Came home, hooked up the new one and we have been online 5 by 5 ever since.

Finished Spenser book #17, Stardust, with nary a peep about crime stopper rules. My present home town, Aiken, South Carolina, got a brief mention as the home of a mother of someone who was not the someone he was looking for.

A few weeks back Netflix added the ability to drag and drop movies in your queue to organize it. This is probably a great thing for most people, but it really screwed me up, because it killed the way I organized my queue, random shuffling. Today I discovered on my account page that I could disable this drag and drop function. Who knows, maybe you could always do this and I’m just late to the party. A check in a little box and woohoo, shuffling works again.

The MFY are losing (big time.)

Started down, went up, still up.
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Take Your Gnome To Work Day

It all started on October 6th, 1969, the third day of the session, when the Chief Justice Warren Burger had a garden gnome delivered to the Supreme Court building. His wife Elvera had ordered it from a mail order catalog, but wasn’t going to be home, so she had it sent to her husband’s work. Justice Berger’s head clerk, not knowing about the package arraingment, opened it up. Since then it has become sort of a running joke among the members to bring in a small gnome statue to court on the first Wednesday of October.

Knowing this, I took Gnorm into work with me today. The thought was to take his picture in various spots around the plant, so I could post some on the web. I got busy and never did take the time to do that. Gnorm spent almost the whole day on the little counter at my cubical greeting visitors and giving me a chance to explain the whole “Take Your Gnome To Work Day” thing. Maybe next year more of my co-workers will join me in celebrating.

Gnorm Visits The Barber Gnorm also made the trip this afternoon to our every four weeks haircut appointment. Our stylist was so enamored with Gnorm that she offered him a free beard trim. He probably could have used a booster seat, but managed with just a small pillow. Note the curtain in the background, Sheri’s Hair Affair has a cow motif going on and after getting his sprucing up decided to cut up with a couple of the resident cows: Suprise!

Started down, went up, back down, still down.
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The Speed Of Light Is Much Faster Than The Speed Of Sound

LightI know the post season starts tomorrow, but tonight it just seems so over, there is no baseball game on the radio. Practically every night for the last six months I’ve sat in front of my PC and wasted several hours mucking about and listening to the FRS on WEEI and I miss it already.

Now the playoffs begin, with all the games on TV and I’ll feel compelled to watch, even though I will more than likely cringe at listening to the monkeys in the booth fill every second of air with truly inane stats and statements. I would much rather listen to the radio announcers call the game and watch the TV pictures, but that is impossible to take because of the time difference. There is a 5 or so second delay between the TV pictures and the radio sound (I have no clue as to what the reason for this delay is) and it made me crazy the one time I tried it.

Oooooh, I wonder if you had TIVO and hit pause until the radio sound caught up to the TV, then restarted the video?

Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 430

Round 1

They finally set the scheduled times for the first round playoff games. This is the only one that counts, but I’ll probably have one eye on the Cleveland – New York series. As much as I’s hate to have the FRS knocked out of a chance at a World Series win by the Yankees, it would be so much sweeter to trounce the MFY on the way to it.

Game 1 LAA @ BOS Wed Oct. 3 6:30 pm TBS
Game 2 LAA @ BOS Fri Oct. 5 8:30 pm TBS
Game 3 BOS @ LAA Sun Oct. 7 3:00 pm TBS
Game 4* BOS @ LAA Mon Oct. 8 9:30 pm TBS
Game 5* LAA @ BOS Wed Oct. 10 8:30 pm TBS
* If Necessary

My prize for the David Ortiz Walk Off Contest on The Joy of Sox showed up in the mail today – Big Papi – My Story of Big Dreams and Big Hits. There are a few pictures in the book and one is of David when he played for the New Britain Rock Cats in the summer of ’97. I can’t remember if we visited my old home town that summer and if we did, did we take in a game and if we did, did we see “Little” Papi.

Also one of the Spenser books I ordered came too, so I’ve got plenty to read for Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday between games.

Started up, went down, back up, down again, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 428

Lovers Lane

Lovers LaneGnorm went for a walk in Hitchcock Woods with us today (some peektures) It was another beautiful fall day, almost a carbon copy of yesterday; cool, crisp with the very definition of blue sky overhead. It was great to get out and take a hike. Because we got a late (for us) start we had to share the woods with dog walkers, runners (Hi Anne) and horseback riders. We probably saw 10 people! Donna and I took Gnorm down our favorite trail, but it just made him sad because his new girlfriend from yesterday wasn’t with him.

At the end of last week, every time I came home from work the internet connection was down. I would have to reboot the modem, and sometimes the router too, a couple/few of times to get it stable. Yesterday it was fine, but today as I prepared to listen to the FRS‘s last game of the season, it just wouldn’t work no matter how many times I rebooted everything. I ended up on the back porch with the laptop and took a ride on the internet on a neighbor’s dime. Someone close by has an unsecured WAP… After on more reboot of everything, including the PC, I now have internet on the desktop. I can connect to my wireless network with the laptop, but I cannot see the desktop nor the internet. Plus I can no longer get the router’s admin panel from the desktop even after resetting the router. Fixing that will be a job for tomorrow after work.

The Emperor got a bath this afternoon and had the royal scary dentures installed. They will add a little spice to some of the October Post Office photos.

Started down, went up, still up.
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Polo, the Sport of Gnomes

Gnorm Watches PoloThis morning the local horse set celebrated the 125th Anniversary of Whitney Field and Polo in Aiken. There was a parade that started from downtown, winding it’s way through the horse district and ending up at Whitney Field for a couple of demonstration chukkas of polo.

Because it was a beautiful fall day in Aiken and Whitney Field is only about a mile and a half from home, Donna and I walked up to see the parade. There were local politicians in shiny cars, polo players on sleek ponies and regal carriages pulled by teams of horses. After the parade we went over to watch the polo action for a while. The players dressed as players would have in the late 1800s with hats instead of helmets and shirts with no numbers. The teams consisted of five members instead of today’s four. Also, the rules were slightly different in that back shots were not allowed then and today’s players had a hard time curbing that instinct.

You can see about a dozen photos from the parade and the polo on my Flickr! site.

Started down, still down.
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