Ben wants to have his birthday party at LaserQuest this year. Its a laser tag place. He LOVES that place. And I have to admit that its really very clean, wholesome fun.
Since his birthday is so close to Chloe’s and often the guest list is similar we sometimes combine parties. When Chloe was asked if she wanted to have her birthday party at LaserQuest she declined.
Ben said “Awww… I like shooting little girls for my birthday!”
funny guy.
Sphere: Related ContentThe weekend went well. It was very very busy, but good.
On Saturday the kids did their swimming lessons from 8am to 9am. We grabbed a quick bite to eat and dropped Ben off at the first congregational church because he was going to hike five miles and then spend the day and evening camping with the boy scouts at Camp Nihan.
We turned right around and headed off to Peabody where Grace’s birthday party was held. The venue (Bonkers) wasn’t bad. We stayed for lunch and everyone had a good time. On the way home I dropped off Ben’s tent and gear (he had been waiting for it for an hour. oops!)
Then we went home and spent the afternoon visiting with friends from out of town. We had a great time with them and their kids got along really well with our kids and everything went great.
At night it snowed a little. Well, I guess in hindsight its clear that it snowed kind of a lot. First it rained then it turned in to snow. At 11pm some of the scouts’ tents started to collapse under the weight of the snow. Not mine, though! Years ago I went to Eastern Mountain Sports and picked up a decent 2-3 person three season tent that Ben took. I believe it sagged under the weight, but I dont’ believe it buckled and collapsed.
In any case, they woke the park ranger who opened a cabin for them to stay in. They got up at 6am to start breaking down their camp site. When I got there at 8am with hot chocolate for Ben they looked awful. Every one of them. Especially Ben. They were all wet and cold and miserable. They finished cleaning up and we took some of the troop gear and then went to Burger King for a warm breakfast. I think Ben really appreciated it. And after he took his shower I think he started feeling human again.
I spent the rest of the morning getting our belongings out of storage. I made several trips back and forth between the storage unit and the house. Eventually Ben went to his friend, Spencer’s house and Liz and I went off to see if we could track down the local “Whole Foods Market”. It wasn’t far but was inconveniently located.
So it wound up taking us all day long. When I got home I had some chores to tend to. I also got to grill for the first time this year - some delicious marinated steak tips. Me and Gabriel and Chloe devoured them!
Somehow the whole weekend got eaten up with obligations - good and less-good. And here it is: Monday and I’m ready for the weekend again.
The trouble is that I have a cold. So I much rather just go to sleep than go to work. Maybe I’ll do that tomorrow.
ugh - I need some more DayQuil.
Sphere: Related ContentI snuck out a little early for lunch today to drive over to Boston University where they’re having a regional robotics competition for high school students. Its put on by Boston FIRST - I think “FIRST” is a nation-wide or world-wide organization that sponsors robotics competitions for people of all ages. They’re the ones who do the LegoLeague and Mindstorms competitions.
So I snuck over there at lunch time to watch some of the competitions. I won’t get in to the details of how the competition is run. I just want to say that it was a fair amount of fun to watch. Some of the schools brought a bunch of students besides those who were driving the robots and they would dress up in identical t-shirts and cheer on their team. Some schools brought their mascots (like lions, and tigers and bears) who would whoop and holler and get the crowd stirred up. It wasn’t like a pep rally but there was a lot of excitement in the air. I only stuck around for about 30 or 45 minutes but I enjoyed myself while I was over there.
I also had a funny turkish-sausage panini sandwich at a small shop I’d never been in before.
It was fun. It made me want to get back to my robot-building efforts.
Sphere: Related ContentEverything is fine. Busy but fine. It seems like every night has some activity or obligation that has to be take care of. Ben has scouts every Tuesday. Gabe has scouts every-other-Wednesday. There have been candy-related obligations and cookie-related obligations. Tonight I have a scout committee meeting to go to. Last night I got a chance to install a new video card in my computer, which I finally got our of storage.
We’re going to fix up the basement sometime soon and I’ll have to get a new desk for that room, but I didn’t want to give up my computer for that whole time so I got a KVM switch from Microcenter in Cambridge. Its a gizmo that allows me to share the keyboard, video and mouse (KVM) of one of the kids’ computers. So I last night I spent the evening installing operating system updates, virus scan updates and World of Warcraft updates. I also had a chance to run some demonstrations of the new board’s abilities and I’m really excited about it.
Its an excellent board. its a geForce 7800GS OC - My old computer was getting a little long in the tooth to run the games I wanted to play so I was faced with either upgrading the computer or putting a hotshit video card in. I wasn’t prepared to pay all the money that would be necessary to get the computer I want so I went with the new card instead. I have to try downloading some demos of the newest and most exciting games and see how they do.
I don’t think we have anything going on Friday, but on Saturday Grace is having a birthday party at an indoor playground and is having a bunch of guests. Friends of ours from Maine are coming down and local friends are coming too. it should be a lot of fun.
Ben won’t be there because he has a five mile hike followed by a camping trip. They’ll be hiking from a local church parking lot to a boyscout camp that’s about five miles from here. The weather forecast is calling for a high of about 50 and low’s around 38. That should be fine for him. He’s camped in colder conditions.
After the party I will swing by and make sure his tent is set up and drop off his camping gear. I remember doing some of the same things when I was his age and its a great time to be a scout. It was very exciting going off and doing these things without your parents.
So, there’s lots of things going on - its busy but we’re getting things done.
[Read more →]
Department of Minerals and Energy
Hey Hey Hey! This is great news! Get a load of this! I’m going to earn $6.8 million! Wow, am I lucky.
Look at this letter I got:
South Africa
DEPARTMENT OF MINERALS AND ENERGY.
I am Dr. Gerrard Tosi,Director of Project Implementation, South Africa Ministry of Energy & Mineral Resources. I am making this contact with you based on the committee’s need for an individual/company who is willing to assist us with a solution to a money transfer.
First and foremost, I apologize using this medium to reach you for a transaction/business of this magnitude, but this is due to Confidentiality and prompt access reposed on this medium. In unfolding this proposal, I want to count on you, as a respected and honest person to handle this transaction with sincerity, trust and confidentiality.
I have decided to seek a confidential co-operation with you in the execution of the deal described hereunder for the benefit of all parties and hope you will keep it as a top secret because of the nature of this transaction. Within the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources where I work as Director of Project Implementation and with the cooperation of our other top officials, we have in our possession as overdue payment bills totaling Seventeen Million United States Dollars (US$17,000,000,000.) which we want to transfer abroad with the assistance and cooperation of a foreign company/individual to receive the said fund on our behalf or a reliable foreign non-company account to receive such funds. More so, we are handicapped in the circumstances, as the South Africa Civil Service Code of Conduct does not allow us to operate an offshore account hence your importance in the whole transaction.
This amount $17M represents the balance of the total contract value executed on behalf of my Department by a foreign contracting firm, which we the officials over-invoiced deliberately. Though the actual contract cost have been paid to the original contractor, leaving the balance in the tune of the said amount which we have in principles gotten approval toremit by Key tested Telegraphic Transfer (K.T.T) to any foreign bank account you will provide by filing in an application through the Ministry of Justice here in South Africa for the transfer of rights and privileges of the former contractor to you.
I have the authority of my partners involved to propose that should you be willing to assist us in the transaction, your share of the sum will be 40% of the $17 million, 50% for us and 10% for taxation and miscellaneous expenses. The business itself is 100% safe, on your part provided you treat it with utmost secrecy and confidentiality. Also your area of specialization is not a hindrance to the successful execution of this transaction. I have reposed my confidence in you and hope that you will not disappoint me.
Endeavor to contact me immediately through my DIRECT EMAIL to confirm whether or not you are interested in this deal. If you are not, it will enable me scout for another foreign partner to carry out this deal. I want to assure you that my partners and myself are in a position to make the payment of this claim possible provided you can give us a very strong assurance and guarantee that our share will be secured and please, remember to treat this matter very confidential, because we will not comprehend with any form of exposure as we are still in active Government Service. Once again, remember that time is of great essence in this transaction.
I wait in anticipation of your fullest co-operation.
Yours faithfully,
DR.GERRARD TOSI
N.B: Please reply with your confidential phone and fax number to enable me contact you for further clarifications, Via E-mail:- gerrard_tosi@yahoo.com
Sphere: Related ContentSee, I always hated Ashcroft. My first tip-off with Ashcroft was when he lost an election to the US Senate from Missouri to a dead guy. Really. The candidate that won, had already been in the ground for two weeks when the election occurred. But the wise poeple of Missouri decided that a dead guy was better than Ashcroft.
So he got the boot and this very reasonable sounding guy, Gonzalez came in.
My first clue with Al was that he was nominated by Bush. I figured that was probably reason enough to keep a close eye on him.
Then I recalled that it was this sonofabitch who put together the lousy legal argument that was used to deny the detainees at Guantanamo all legal rights. It was Alberto Gonzalez.
As I have said before, I am sure there are some terrible people there who deserve some kind of justice, but no justice is being meeted out there. They are personas non grata. We’re keeping them in Gitmo so our own laws can’t apply to them. Cuba can’t enforce its laws on our military base so its a wierd little hole of accountability. If they’re guilty of a crime I say fry ‘em. That would be justice. If they’re not guilty of a crime then we have to be just and set them free.
Justice delayed is justice denied and its shameful what’s happening there.
So anyway, I’ve been hoping some of Al’s legal shenanigans would come back to get him.
And this is good news to me.
Sphere: Related ContentWhenever we take a roadtrip we manage to just barely fit everything we need in the minivan. We finally bit the bullet and got a good cargo box for the top of the minivan. 
I took the kids over to REI last night to pick it up along with a new pair of boots and a four-season tent. All this was on super-duper sale so we got a decent price. But the guy who brought out the boots and tent said there were no more boxes back there for me. I explained it was a roof rack and he kind of looked at me funny and said “Oh… then its out back. Just a minute”
He came back five minutes later dragging a cardboard box that was ten feet long, three feet wide and about three feet tall!! I dragged it out the car and just stood there looking at it and comparing it to the minivan. The box was bearly as big as the van!!
Did I mention I had all four kids with me?
Well I wound up hauling the cargo box out of the shipping cardboard box and it took me 30 minutes to figure out how to get it on the roof!
Alright, I’m an idiot.
But after that everything went fine.
I am hoping to make a roadtrip to Niagara Falls this summer and that would be a godo time to try it out. We may also head south.
Either way, its going to be a roadtrip and we will be able to store much of our luggage up there!
Yippee!
Sphere: Related ContentAmazon.com Unbox video downloads: TV shows, movies, international videos and more, ready to download
Here’s something kind of cool if you have a Tivo. They started a partnership with Amazon so you can purchase or rent a video from Amazon and have it downloaded straight to your Tivo box! Isn’t that cool?!
The prices aren’t bad - most things appear to be about $4
I’ve downloaded Casino Royale - gotta see the newest Bond movie.
Sphere: Related ContentSo we have been to Disney world and returned none the worse for the wear. A little lighter in the pocketbook but all in all feeling good about the trip. In summary we all had a good time and rode as many rides as we could. The kids seemed mostly uninterested in the characters. The hotel was cool, but the pool was closed, which made my people very sad.
If you’re interested in the agonizing play-by-play details, please feel free to read it below.
—————————————–
[Read more →]
Disney’s Wilderness Lodge, The Walt Disney World Resort, Orlando, Florida
From here on out, Blogrilla is on a short leave of absence until we return from The Wilderness Lodge at the fabulous Disney World.
Peace out.
Sphere: Related Content