Monday, July 25, 2005

weekend log

On Friday night I mowed the grass for the first time in 6 weeks. Later we killed some time out at Media Play and Target.

Saturday we puttered around the house in the morning. Megan made these awesome baked pan cakes with fruit compote for brunch. We stuffed ourselves at Shorty's BBQ in the afternoon...great patio setup there. In the evening we went to a park in Perrysburg and poked around downtown. Because of the temperature and relative niceness of the day, it would have been sacrilege to not have ice cream somewhere. We went down to Maggie Moo's at Levis, and once again it was terrific. I thought it might have just been a fluke when they opened up but no, its some of the best ice cream I've ever had, aside from some of the home made batches we've made.

Sunday was spent painting, cleaning around the house, and paying bills. Not much excitement but made some great progress on the room downstairs. In the evening I planted a willow tree from a start my mom gave. Its only about 5 feet tall now, I really hope the transplant takes. Also I started reading The Guru's Guide to SQL Server Architecture and Internals by Ken Henderson.

Sunday, July 24, 2005

not my child!

There is a lot of buzz around recent findings of hidden content in the Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas game.

http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/050720/205985.html?.v=1

This reminds me of an incident at Target that always makes me laugh. An adolescent was asking the Target associate to purchase a copy of GTA. Because of the rating system the associate said he would have to get his parents consent. A couple minutes later the boy comes back with his mom. The associate explains to the lady that the game includes gang violence, stealing cars, driving recklessly, etc. The mother seemed ok with it and was about to purchase the game. The associate then mentioned there was some sexually suggestive material such as prostitutes and girlfriends. The mother's jaw nearly hit the floor as she snatched the game from her son. He looked very ashamed. Basically that tells him that its alright to simulate being a criminal, but once you throw sex into the mix someone has crossed the line. If given the choice between your kids thinking about sex, or thinking about shooting someone and stealing their car, which would you prefer? Maybe you say neither, but this mother's reaction will always stick with me.

Thursday, July 21, 2005

A very cool idea...

I hope the young men make a ton of money from this innovation, a peltier system to cool your car instead of the traditional freon/compressor type setup.

http://www.sltrib.com/utah/ci_2841984

throwback to third grade

kid B: [doing lots of stuff to get attention, some of it stupid] "I rule!"

kid A: "no, you're stupid, and you're gonna get us all in trouble"

kid B: "I'm rubber, you're glue..."

kid A: [takes over the game excluding kid B and his buddies]


Toledo Journal article

Wow this mayoral race will be crazy!!

Monday, July 18, 2005

weekend log

Friday evening I took the fam to the library's Harry Potter party. It truly amazed me...I've never seen that many people at the Toledo Main branch. It was surreal also with all the costumes. They had a magician, bird handler, lots of crafts, tv stations playing the prior movies, free refreshments, and more. Saturday I spent the day working around the house. Sunday we went to Ann Arbor. It was a real nice weekend...

Monday, July 11, 2005

weekend log

Saturday morning I attended a timberframe seminar, home tour, and shop tour. When I returned home, Megan was frantically trying to dry up the basement from the hot water heater that decided to stop storing water. I got a hose to empty the tank in a more controlled manner, but the piece of junk valves at the hot water heater did nothing to stop the flow. So I had to shut down water for the whole house until I could get a new one from Lowes and Sunday and get it hooked up. What a pain...I hate those household projects that are just getting you back to where you were before.

Friday, July 01, 2005

new music review

I picked up the new Ben Folds album Saving Silverman a week ago. Ben Folds (with and with out the 'five') has consistently been one of my favorites for the last 7 years (Whatever & Ever Amen). Here's my review on Amazon.