Blogrilla

The weekend went well. I’m still struggling to remember what we did on Saturday. Recently we’ve been talking about finding a campground that provides activities for kids and adults. That is, when I was a kid and went to summer camp there were all kinds of activities. What if there were such a place geared for families? Like The Rocking Horse Ranch (http://www.rhranch.com/). Or Smuggler’s Notch (http://www.smuggs.com/flash/index.html).

Liz saw an ad for a place called “Ellis Haven” (http://www.ellishaven.com/). It had the advantage of cabins but you could still have a fire and go swimming and there were planned activities. This sounded like fun, so we thought we’d have a visit.

Hated it. It looked like a run-down trailer park that sat on a reasonably nice lake. There were a lot of permanent trailers. Some had porches built on to them. Some people had put up flags or signs announcing the name of the family dwelling there. It looked like there were hundreds of sites. Maybe a thousand? It was very very crowded and none of us liked it. Still, I’m glad we went because at least now we know what its like and know that its not for us.

But we’d already paid an entrance fee so we could go swimming and go to the petting zoo. We spent two or three hours in the water and had a fine time at their lake. Nobody got hurt and we all had a good time. I spent the time throwing the kids in the water. They loved every second of it and begged me to keep throwing them. Ben and I swam out the raft. Ben can swim a little. He only had to hang on to me for 20 or 30 feet. He’ll get better.

Last night Liz was itching for Halloween to arrive. So we watched “Sleep Hollow” — excellent movie. I think she took down her summer-time decorations and put up the fall colors. I keep trying to point out that its not even September yet. She knows that but can’t help getting excited about the fall weather.

Who am I to argue?

Tags: Uncategorized by Private Idaho
No Comments »

Last night VH1 had “100 greatest artists of Hard Rock”.

It was excellent! THIS was the list I had been looking for! They talked about all the bands and artists who produced the music with a hard edge to it. It was the music that me and my friends listened to when we were kids. The problem has been that VH1 really screwed up with their list of Heavy Metal bands. They overlapped too much with the hair bands of the eighties. They focused far too much on poofy-haired warblers and ignored the pioneers like AC/DC, Iron Maiden and Judas Priest.

To this day I don’t know how you can talk about heavy metal and NOT talk about these bands! VH1 also included greats like The Clash, Black Sabbath, The Sex Pistols, Jimi Hendrix, Anthrax, Metallica, Motorhead and Led Zepplin. It was a much more thorough list that satisfied me.

Tags: Uncategorized by Private Idaho
No Comments »

Remember that FastLane transponder I got? It means that for tolls in Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey I can just slow down to about 20mph at the tolls. This was a big deal for us because when we go down to South Jersey we go through a LOT of toll booths. With the transpoder we were able to really breeze through them! It was a real joy. In fact there was one toll (the northern most toll booth on the Garden State Parkway) where we were able to zip through at 60mph! WHEE!

I really like the transponder and I wish I’d gotten it years ago. It made the trip much easier. Every toll booth represented a little fun or a “win” or something. I got excited each time the transponder would go in to action. Maybe I’m just too tense about coming up with the right amount of change or dropping the change or holding up the line or whatever, but I sure liked not having to worry about any of that.

Tags: Uncategorized by Private Idaho
No Comments »

Grace pee’ed in the potty for the second time yesterday! Its wonderful news! I don’t think she’s going to get the hang of it for quite a while yet, but its steps in the right direction!

I got a phone call from her yesterday telling me all about it and I have to confess that I could hardly get a word in edge-wise! She’s learning her speaking habits from her sister, I think.

Also last night I was on the computer and Grace brought me a can of smoked almonds. While this was very nice and everything, it was also a little disturbing. The smoked almonds are kept on a shelf six feet off the floor! Liz tells me that a few days ago Grace brought her a sippy cup asking for a drink. Trouble is the sippy cups are also kept five and a half feet off the floor in a cabinet!

Apparently we have a baby monkey. The good news is that she seems to be a very nice baby monkey.

Tags: Uncategorized by Private Idaho
No Comments »

HAHA!!

Another drive has arrived! This one is the $87 NEC dual-layer DVD writer! I bought this one from InternetIshop.com (aka HugeBee), which is interestingly enough the same company who is selling me the case/motherboard/CPU combination. Its completely coincidental. But they shipped separately and when I look at the order status on InternetIshop.com’s web page they both say “processing” — but I can’t track the actual shipment. So I don’t know how far away the case/motherboard/CPU is.

That’s ok. I’ll put this drive in the cabinet with the other one and settle in to wait for the brains and memory to arrive. I think I’m also waiting for a video card.

Tags: Uncategorized by Private Idaho
No Comments »

The drive that arrived was the 120GB 7200 RPM HDD. It sure came quick. Its still in its annoying plastic coccoon, so I’m very pleased about that. I gave the seller good feedback already and put the box in a cabinet. Liz was asking about the package and I told her that we’re also expecting a great big package containing the case and all the brains of the machine and that there wasn’t much for me to do until that arrived.

So I’m very pleased about that!

Tags: Uncategorized by Private Idaho
No Comments »

Over the last couple of weeks I’ve paid minimal attention to the news. Normally I keep abreast of it on a minute-by-minute basis. I get several different “breaking news” alerts and monitor newsfeeds. Not very closely, usually, because it interferes with my work, but I try to pay pretty close attention to news in general.

And over the last couple of weeks I took a break from that to visit with family and do activities outside of the house/office and I’ll tell you what: I’ve been happier for it. Sometimes, for sure, its good to get a break from it and change your perspective. I enjoyed not being quite so “plugged-in” and now that I’m back at work I find myself falling in to familiar patterns and sucking up every piece of news I can get.

Ignorance is bliss, I think. I was clearly much happier not having a clue about what was going on. But I don’t think I could be satisfied living my life with that much ignorance.

Tags: Uncategorized by Private Idaho
No Comments »

WHEE!!

A part for my computer arrived! I don’t know which part yet, but I suspect its the memory. On the other hand the box was described as 12″ x 12″ x 6″. That seems overkill for memory. Maybe its a drive!

But which one?!

(can you tell I’m having fun even WAITING for the new parts?)

Tags: Uncategorized by Private Idaho
No Comments »

Half-Life 2 release date is November 1st, 2004.

In case you needed the information or anything.

Tags: Uncategorized by Private Idaho
No Comments »

I got word that the memory for my new system has shipped. I also received confirmations of payment for everything, so now I’m just waiting for word that the components have shipped. I’m nervous that not everything will arrive or there will be some problem with a critical component. I’m a little anxious, I have to admit. If there was one vendor I could go to (Compaq) and shake until I got satisfaction I think I would feel better. On the other hand I don’t have all my eggs in one basket this way.

I’m thinking of setting up a dual-boot system with a Windows XP and a Linux partition. I’d be able to run either one. But what would I DO with the Linux portion?

Tags: Uncategorized by Private Idaho
No Comments »