Visitors

We have family staying with us, specifically my mother, brother and sister, because they live on Salmon Falls Road in Somersworth which is closed.

Last night as I was falling asleep, I heard what I thought were noises outside. Growling noises I guess. To my overactive imagination it sounded like the bear, Ben, from Grizzly Adams. You know, when they would talk to each other. We've had bears before and I desperately want to capture them on camera.

Unfortunately, nothing was out there when I peered out my window so I sadly plopped myself back down on the pillow.

Later on, I realized that the noise I heard was my mother snoring in the next room.

Not Another Dam Photo

Just a river, the Isinglass where it meets 202 in Barrington.

































And, of course, some videos:

Video 1

Video 2

Video 3

Video 4

Bellamy Dam

Pretty lame considering.

I have a problem

Have you ever had a problem where the more you think of it and try not to do it, the more you do?

Yeah, me too. It involves the English language and if you've read this blog or had the privilege or receiving personal email from me you've probably witnessed it.

I screw up words that sound the same (or almost the same) but are spelled different.

There, they're, their

Where, wear

Your, you're

Even, no and know

Sadly, I KNOW the right way to use each word. I think its just my brain playing jokes on me. Or karma, for making fun of so many people.

Update:

Hear, here
Write, right

5950

Not the name of the new Van Halen album or the title of a movie set in the future where women rule the planet and all men are castrated at age 13, except for a select few who are used for breeding, and forced to work in sulfur mines deep under the earth, but the total cost of the gas I purchased this morning, $59.50.

I was really empty. Really empty. The only gas left in the vehicle by the time I made it to Irving was in the fuel lines, empty. This is proven by the fact that I have an 18 gallon tank in my truck but I managed to squeeze 20.244 gallons into it. Amazing.

In Other News

I also locked my keys in my truck this morning requiring me to excercise my AAA member benefits. This is the 2nd time in little over a month. Tomorrow, I promise that I will march down to the hardware store and request 4 spare keys. One for my wife, one to keep in my desk at work, one to hang on the key rack at home, and one to attach to the truck in a secret location.

The tools that the wrecker guys use to unlock your vehicle are cool too. A wedge, a lever and an air bladder. I have to get me some of those too. The only problem is I would keep them in my truck.

Dam Flood

From your favorite dam photographer.

You can look at pictures of what this dam normally looks like here and here.































And several videos:

Video 1

Video 2

Video 3

Video 4

Video 5

Kip Journal 2/8/1999 and 2/10/1999

Back when he used to work for the geological company, kip used to ride his bike 10 miles a day with 100 pounds of equipment on his back. "YOU WANNA TALK ABOUT BEING IN GOOD SHAPE!"

Back when he was lifting, Kip could bench press more than most people could lift with their legs.

Kip once did 700 pounds on the squatting machine, he would have done more but he couldn't fit anymore plates.

Kip had two roomates in college who were arrested in Jamaica for sleeping on the beach. they spent 2 days in jail, and the american consulate brought them cigarettes.

When Kip first started using the internet, it was nothing but telnet and ftp.

I Love Comics

And for whatever reason, I have had a hard time finding good online comics.

Really, the only ones that I have found (that I like) are Savage Chickens and Andertoons .

But NOW I found Tapestry Comics which is exactly what I was looking for.

Joel on Software

The Development Abstraction Layer

I used to look at this site a lot a few years ago and I just rediscovered it today by looking at Bloglines Top 200 Feeds. I found this article very poignant because it echoes closely what the developers (all two of us) go through here.

Don't get me wrong, I like my job, especially compared to my last one, but is too much to ask that we not be stuck in a room with 9 other very loud customer care people who constantly interrupt us all day with their questions?

Is it too much to ask that the room that we spend 9 hours a day in be kept at a temperature less than 80?

Could we have at least one person who could test our code after we write it? Because anyone who has ever programmed before knows, its pretty difficult to break your own code. Subconcsciously we just can't do it.

The whole air conditioner portion of this article made me laugh because last summer they finally bought us a new window unit, but it was so freakin' hot out we couldn't wait 2 weeks for the maintenance guy to put it in so me and the other guy assembled it and put it in ourselves. It must have been a funny sight to any onlookers on the street seeing me, all arms and legs, hanging out of a third story window, 60 feet above pavement, adjusting the levelers.

The most angry I have ever been, I think, was the day I came in last fall and the maintenance guy had taken the AC out for the winter and I wasn't allowed to put it back in. It actually hit 83 degrees in here one day. In the dead of winter. And I don't think the temperature ever got below 80 until I put the AC back in a couple of weeks ago. We opened the windows every day, but the cubicle walls actually do a great job of preventing air circulation.

And lastly, this is us:

"You've got your typical company started by ex-software salesmen, where everything is Sales Sales Sales and we all exist to drive more sales. These companies can be identified in the wild because they build version 1.0 of the software (somehow) and then completely lose interest in developing new software. Their development team is starved or nonexistent because it never occurred to anyone to build version 2.0... all that management knows how to do is drive more sales."

Yeah. The .NET conversion we had been planning on doing this summer for over a year has now been pushed back. Actually, no, it hasn't been pushed back. We are expected to do both, continued enhancement to the old while building the new and any changes we make to the old need to be incorporated into the new. Redundant programming. Gotta love it.

I am no primadonna and honestly I'd much rather be driving a tractor in the burning sun, but since that doesn't pay well and I am stuck here, is it too much to ask that the room I am in is cool and quiet?

Softball Season

Ok. I take back what I said previously, "This softball season is not going to be as fun as the last three."

I apologize for being depressed and letting my emotions run wild.

Of course, it doesn't hurt that we beat our archrivals last night and our team looks pretty stinkin' good.

Dam, Another One

I like dams so get off my back. This is the Bellamy Dam in Madbury taming the might Bellamy River and creating the Bellamy Reservoir.

Veinticuatro

I'm not going to give much away, but as a courtesy for those people who are not up to date on their episodes of 24, you need to click the link below to see the post.

Ok. Um. Ok.

• Why was there not a guard at the door of the room Chloe was in?
  
• Why did they not immediately make 8 back up copies of that recording as soon as Jack arrived?
  
• How come there wasn't a guard in the room with Chloe?
  
• How come Chloe didn't jump up and scream bloody murder when the Evil Miles walked into the room?
  
• If no guard, how come Bill or someone trustworthy wasn't in the room with her?
• Also, how come Jack never played the recording for them over the phone during the past 3 episodes? If for nothing else, just to prove to someone that it existed? I mean, Wayne's probably dead and so is the banker dude. Oh wait, thats right. Secretary of Defense Heller heard it and he's alive now! Maybe HE made a back up copy!
  
• You mean to tell me that they can upload schematics of a Russian nuclear power plant heating and ventilation system to his PDA in seconds but he can't get them a copy of the recording?
  
• Did he lose his USB cable? Or maybe the recorder isn't Bluetooth? Maybe Chloe should teach him how to open a socket or go in through a subnet.
  
• What gives? I am very perturbed.
  
• I hope Martha blows her husband away in a drunken drugged stupor.
  

Prison Break

My wife and I are almost caught up with Prison Break. At one point we were three episodes behind because it comes on at 8 pm and we ALWAYS have to tape it. Now we only have about 10 minutes left of last weeks episode to watch.

But anyway, this show is entertaining, but I swear that there has never been any TV show that has forced me to swallow my tongue to keep from screaming more than this show. The only plot twist that they haven't employed yet is aliens, but I bet they will in the season finale. Thats how Scofield and his crew are finally going to get out. Aliens will pick them up on the roof of the infirmary. Oh yeah, and Bellick will turn out to be a vampire who gets killed by a slayer. A vampire slayer, if you will.

At one point in last weeks episode (which we watched last night) when Linc's long lost father rescued him from a crash, my wife started to go off on the unbelievability of this show and I stopped her dead in her tracks by saying, "Steph! Its PRISON BREAK!" and she replied, thoroughly humbled, "Oh yeah, I forgot. Suspend reality."

What Being a Dad Means to Me

Being a Dad means wiping the snot off your baby son's nose with your thumb because you have no wipes or kleenex and then putting your hand in your pocket to wipe your thumb off.

Kip Journal 2/5/1999

Kip once had a boil on his arm. it got so huge that one day it just went 'phfsffhfdfdfs'.

Kip & 9.5 are going to 'jam' and drink lots of suds tomorrow.

"As long as there is no traffic on the George Washington Bridge..it is way faster than the Tappan Zee."

On his honeymoon, Kip stayed at a cabin that was at 4200 feet.."If you sleepwalked..dude you would fall into a crevasse that was 3600 feet straight down."

When Kip used to work in the radio station, they would throw records against the wall. The records would shatter and the pieces would stick in the ceiling.

Miscellany

I taught my wife how to drive my truck last night, it's a stick shift and she's never driven one before. She did very well. Only stalled it a couple of times and didn't make the rookie mistake of revving the engine up to 5000 rpms and letting the clutch out slooow. My sister does that. Even now.

Once when I was kid, probably around 8 or 9, my mother packed 4 kids in a Chevy Citation with a stick shift so that she could buy cigarettes. She didn't know how to drive it and we lurched and stalled and bucked and squealed all the way to the store. I was very embarassed and also absolutely convinced that I could drive it better.

This softball season is not going to be as fun as the last three.

Lurleen knocked on our door at 10pm last night. We didn't answer it. What a looser (misspelled on purpose. I imagine that's how she spells it).

My grass is finally starting to grow. I can't wait to use my new mower. I thought about how appropriate the brand name "Weedeater" is when used on my lawn.

Virginia never looked as good as it does right now.

The other day I overheard Lurleen (her voice has no volume control) tell her boyfriend that their daughter opened the curtains when Lurleen was walking around the house "butt naked." I threw up in my mouth. That got me to thinking though, who would I prefer to see naked, Lurleen or Butch. I decided on Butch because at least she bathes and her skin wouldn't glisten. Its the lesser of two evils really. Where Lurleen might induce blindness in both eyes, the worst Butch could do is effect one eye.

I am glad Johnny Demon got booed.

I have a new supervisor at work. Someone told me once that you never know who you might end up working for someday. So true.

I need to fix my motorcyle and ride my 4 wheeler more often.

As sacrilegious as this may sound, I am still not into the baseball season yet. I barely check my fantasy baseball teams and really when I do its just to make sure nobody is on the disabled list.

Back in the day swimming in the quarry in Wells was fun.

Life is tough.

Doppelganger

John Lackey meet Haywire










Haywire meet John Lackey

Original Artwork

VeeDub by Rebecca Martin (AKA Evil One)

This made my hands tremble

Game Six of the 1986 World Series with Nintendo RBI Baseball

Hmmm

I kinda broke this blog in Internet Explorer. Bear with me. It looks good in Firefox though.

Update: Well, I fixed it a little bit. Its the bodycount table that is messing it up and the raking post. I will revisit the problem later. I should look at it on my iBook too, but I don't want to. All day at work I have to do that, this is supposed to be fun.

Also on Saturday

My oldest son got stuck under the van trying to retrieve a ball, requiring me to jack it up to free him. I shoulda taken a picture. Ah well, life is full of shouldas.

He didn't even say thank you afterwards. Such ingratitude after all the times I`ve saved your life.

Maniacs

While researching white pines for yesterdays post about raking, I discovered that the state flower of Maine is the WHITE PINE CONE! It's not even a flower!

I also discovered that the state flower of West Virginia is the Rhododendron. Which didn't surprise me because on our recent trip to West Virginia, I noticed a lot of wild rhododendrons. In my mind, rhododendrons only grow in front yards and I couldn't grasp the concept of them in the woods. I thought maybe a hundred years ago some moonshiner wanted to spruce up his shack by planting a few and then they spread over the whole mountainside.

On Saturday

I













and










and










some more.

I am not lucky enough to just have











or











the bulk of it is








Two truck loads of it. If my next house has any white pine trees in the yard, they are as good as firewood.