Blogrilla

This morning I took Grace and Chloe on some errands. We went to the
bakery to pick up a riccota pie.  While we were there I couldn’t
keep from picking up some cannoli and some other treats.  Then we
went to Target and traded Elefun in for a FurReal Pet dog.

The Elefun worked for a short while but then couldn’t push the little butterflies out of the plastic tube.  I saw a cool Stratego game mixed in with a lot of very interesting standard games. 
That is they seemed like a relatively high quality selection of classic
wooden games or games that had wood worked in to them.  I didn’t
buy anything — just admired them.

Then it was off to Home Depot where I bought six bags of play sand for
the sandbox.  Finally we swung by Wild Oats and picked up some
odds and ends.

When we got home we worked in the yard for a while cleaning it
up.  Eventually I hooked up the hose and went inside to turn it
on.  When I did there was a great rush of water from several
points in the pipe leading from inside to the spiggot.  Water was
shooting up from several points in the pipe and drenched everything
underneath the play room.

I think the pipe was poorly supported and several of the joints broke
due to the weight.  I know I shut the water down for the winter –
I only just turned it on today.  So now we have to get a plumber
out to have a look at it and maybe put it back together.   

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The kids have a day off from school today. Its “Good Friday” and all. I
never think about Easter one way or the other. Liz says she really
likes the holiday but to me its a non-event. If it weren’t for her we
would do nothing at all for it. She tries to focus on the aspects of it
that mark the coming of spring and fertility — the eggs, the rabbits,
baskets & treats. Naturally I know a lot of people like to focus on
the Christian aspects of it. I have no regard for either angle. I hope
Liz and the kids like it, but it doesn’t interest me one iota.

If I could avoid the whole thing altogether I would.

Don’t
get me wrong, I don’t dislike it and I will participate in the events
Liz lines up but I’m not going out of my way to do anything for it
either.

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I don’t have any to speak of. Wait, its Easter. Liz has significant
plans for Sunday. We have to hide some eggs. I think we have to dye
some Easter eggs. Liz tells me there’s a special surprise for me this
evening for dinner. I think we’re having ham on Sunday. And the kids
will want to eat their Easter-treats.

If the weather is ok I
want to make sure that after they have their treats we go for some kind
of walk or something so if they have too much energy they can expend it
outdoors. Maybe I’ll bring a ball and a frisbee so we can play a
little. They don’t like “strolling” as much as running full tilt
through the woods. The weather will be the deciding factor.

Now
that we’ve got several crocuses flowering Liz wants me to get a bunch
of mulch to put down on the flower beads and underneath the swing set.
Last year we had a load of mulch delivered. It killed the grass where
it got dumped and was a royal pain in the neck to distribute. I agreed
to purchase mulch in bags this year. I might do that on Saturday.

Also if the weather holds I will paint the garage door. I can’t wait to paint it and have it looking good.

I’m
thinking of tearing out a beaten-up concrete pad in the backyard and
replacing it with a patio. It would be gravel on the bottom. Then a
couple of inches of sand with the stones on top of that. I need to find
some plans or guides to make better plans, but it involves some
moderate digging and some basic brick/stone laying. I think it would be
a … weekend project. I could dig out the “foundation” on a Saturday
morning and dump the gravel and sand the same day. Then I think I would
wait until the following day to lay the bricks/stones. Yeah… I don’t
need to waste more time on this than is necessary. I could totally do
this.

Speaking of such projects the idea of building a robot has
gone nowhere. I’ve still got some basic parts and accessories but
outside of overheating a resistor a few months ago I haven’t done
anything with it.

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I did not workout yesterday because I wasn’t quite feeling myself. I
also had loads of work and responsibilities calling me. Both of them
teamed up on me and I didn’t work out at all yesterday.

Today,
however I did exercise once already and I may shoot for swimming this
evening. I watched some of the people swimming laps the other day and I
have to say that they were moving at a pretty leisurely pace. Most of
them. I’ve never swam laps so I don’t know what the etiquette is. Some
questions have clear answers: I mean, is it rude to go nude? I suspect
so. In some of the lanes I saw three different people. Do you pass
someone on the left? Right? Underneath? hmm?

I don’t know the answers to these questions.

(except for the “nude” one — I have a pretty good suspicion its frowned upon)

Holy cow, it doesn’t open for laps until 8:45pm on a Friday night!

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“My grandfather always said that living is like licking honey off a thorn.”– Louis Adamic

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Half an inch of really wet snow!!  Haha!!  We totally dodged a six to twelve inch bullet!

I’m so pleased.  I’m eating some breakfast and haven’t shoveled a
bit.  The snow didn’t stick to the sidewalks or the streets so
there’s nothing for me to shovel!  Isn’t that wonderful?

It turned out that it got down to 33 degrees last night so it never got cold enough for the snow to stick around.

hah.

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Dick Albert is predicting six to ten inches of snow for us by dawn.

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So, I just got Chessmaster, 10th edition.  And its proven to me something that I’ve always suspected.
I’m a pretty stinky chess-player.  I really stink much worse than
even I suspected!  The game comes with some training
modules.  There’s a section for drills where the computer sets up
a series of puzzles.  For instance one type makes you find the
move to put your opponent in checkmate in one move.  Or “Find the Fork“.

I started playing the one where you track down the single move to put
your opponent in checkmate.  I assumed I would blow through it
pretty quick.  But it turned out to be a lot trickier than I
expected!

Also, I don’t think I’m a significantly better chess player now than
when I was in sixth grade.  Really.  I don’t think I’ve grown
a lot in that regard over the last 22 years.

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Now they say that we can expect seven inches of snow. Christ, is there no end to this?!

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Its tan. Tan doesn’t go with the rest of the house, but that’s
just the color of the primer on the wood. The shape and pattern of the
door is attractive. So all I have to do is paint the door. Right now
its tan with black finger prints all over it from where the installer’s
hands were all greasy.

The automatic motor is smooth and quiet. I have a remote in my car and Liz has one in hers.

The
trouble is that there’s no keypad on the outside of the garage. The
only way to get in to the garage is to use the remote… which is IN
the car… which is IN the garage!!

The remotes aren’t made for
carrying around with you — they’re for clipping to the visor in your
car. So I called “Steve” back and told him he needed to come back and
add a keypad to the outside of the garage so we can get in to it. He
agreed to come out later the same day (wed). But Liz was going to be
out all afternoon so we had to reschedule until tomorrow.

When its snowy.

As far as I can tell they’re still calling for 1″ to 3″ of snow tonight and tomorrow! Unbelievable. I guess it could be worse.

DAMNIT!! Its worse. I just checked the forecast and its changed to 3″ - 6″!!

I’m
supposed to have been spending time with the kids reading but by the
end of the day I frequently don’t feel like it. No good reason — I
just don’t feel like it. Maybe its selfish.

But I want to change
that and from 6pm to 6:30pm (at least) I want to do more reading with
the kids. I want them to enjoy reading instead of video games.

Who
knows something about fish oil and omega-3 fatty acid? I hear good
things about it from a circulatory perspective. Its also supposed to
fend off Alzheimer’s — the good news is that hasn’t been a problem in
my family. Seems we always kick off due to a heart-condition of one
kind of another long before dementia sets in. Stroke, heart attack,
what-have-you. Its also supposed to be good for Attention Deficit
Disorder and all sorts of things. Check it:
    MSN Health & Fitness on Omega-3

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