‘Home for the Holidays’ kicks off this weekend: Pancake breakfast, trolley to Oak Grove top new additions this year - Melrose, MA - Melrose Free Press
‘Home for the Holidays’ kicks off this weekend
I think the state of Massachusetts is keeping too much information on me. Don’t get me wrong, its not like the nanny state of the UK or anything. But last night I went out to get some Nyquil and found out that they keep the Nyquil Decongestant off the shelves and behind the counter.
I guess its to keep people from making crystal meth out of it or something. I understand that.
But in addition to making it plain old “more difficult” to get at it, they also asked for my drivers license! I watched “Quong” enter it in the cash register. She did a lot of typing and looking at the license for about 60 seconds. Then, on the credi card gizmo - where you digitally sign a credit card slip, it asked for my signature!
So Walgreens took my drivers licenese AND my signature to make sure I wasn’t buying too much NYQUIL, for crying out loud.
I think they’re going overboard.
Sphere: Related ContentMy cough is improving, but I’ve spent the last couple of nights in the basement where my hacking disturbs only the dogs. Cough syrups seem to do little good.
About a month ago my dogs came down with Kennel Cough. We had put them up, over night in as nice a kennel as we could find, but Buckaroo still managed to come home with a wicked cough which he soon gave to Peterman. The vet prescribed hydrocodone as a cough suppressant which seemed to do a lot of good. The pharmacist who filled the prescription kept chuckling about filling a prescription for “Buckaroo”. Pharmacists can get a little wacky.
Last night I decided that if it worked so well for the dogs and that it came from our local pharmacist I could probably take it too. I took about two and a half teaspoons – not much at all – and within about fifteen minutes my head was spinning and I was starting to nod off. And I didn’t cough all night long! Good stuff!
In fact, this morning, I’m still beat and would prefer to be back in bed sleeping. I’m sure I’ll wake up more fully later but for now I just wish I could take a nap.
My college roommate was visiting last night and it sure was good to catch up with him. We spent the evening catching up and it was a nice night. He has a new project up this way so he may be back more often, which would be good. He’s a good guy and I always like seeing him.
However, he had a 7:15am train leaving from South Station which meant that I got up at 5:30am to get him to the local MBTA stop at 6:15am. I’m sure he got there in plenty of time but it was a little earlier than I am used to getting up. Especially after sleeping like a rock with the help of the hydrocodone/vicodin.
Ok, on with work! :mrgreen:
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Last night I sat down with Chloe in front of that mammoth TV I mentioned and played the Wii for a while. I have to admit that it was a lot more fun than I expected! We played Tennis and I think she won. We played golf and I won. I think I won baseball too.
The Wii is turning out to be more entertaining than any other game platform I’ve ever been on. The games so far have been of the kind to pass the time. They’re not the kind that suck the player in with a great story and excellent graphics. In the past I’ve enjoyed getting spooked by some first-person-shooter games. The lure of the Wii is definitely in the controller. If the Xbox and PS3 get controllers like the Wii’s – I think the game system would die instantly.
For the time being, though – it’s a lot of fun. And I can play with Chloe and Grace and we can all have fun with it. It’s a little “cutesie” for my tastes, but its still fun.
I went to the doctor’s and he gave me some antibiotics. My cough and voice are better, but still not good. Nonetheless, I’m on the mend and very pleased.
Tonight we’re expecting an old college roommate to come stay with us. He’s an old friend and its always a pleasure to see him. So I guess we’ll spend the evening catching up - we haven’t seen him in a year or so.
Our friends across the street had a baby last night - I think. It was a little hectic, but we were going to babysit their one-year old until some grandparents could show up to take over. But the grandparents made good time so we weren’t needed. Liz was disappointed. Dadgummit grandparents.
This weekend will mostly entail yard work I think. I have a lot of leaves to take care of. And I need to do one final mowing of the grass and there’s some other organic matter that needs to be cleaned up or disposed of. Maybe I can also take down a cabinet in the den. I have a lot of work to do. I’ve been putting it off for quite a while now because of things like scouts, visitors and illness. But I think this weekend won’t have any of that.
Sphere: Related ContentSo thanksgiving weekend has come and gone. We had relatives from south
Me? I think I have come down with pneumonia or some other kind of stubborn respiratory bug. It’s a vicious cough that won’t go away. Its making me really tired so I was kind of lethargic when our visitors were here. I felt bad that I couldn’t show them a better time.
On the up-side Liz decided to get me a new flat-screen plasma TV! Although I tried to get a 42” Sharp Aquos for half-off at circuit city, I was too slow, I guess. My brother-in-law came with me at 4:30am to get in line, but there were still maybe 300 people ahead of us. By 6am we found out that they were sold out so we ran another errand across the street at Target and then went home where I went back to bed.
Later the ladies (including chloe) went to Sephora, a make-up store in
The weather was good all weekend, which, because we didn’t hardly leave the house, didn’t turn out to matter much. Our guests included two teenagers – a 16 year old boy and a 14 year old girl. What did they have to do at our house for three and a half days? We were going to give our own kids a Wii for xmas, but we decided to get it out early so that our guests wouldn’t be bored out of their skulls. The kids (ours and theirs) OWNED the den all weekend. One was loading up her MP3 player while another was playing Rayman on the Wii and another was playing Team Fortress 2 on my computer. It was totally Kidville down there. So it wasn’t until Sunday that I got a chance to watch my new TV.
I also spent some time trying to recover a database at work and it took me until Sunday afternoon to finally get the thing operational.
On Sunday I took Gabe to a cub scout event where they cleaned up the parking lot of the church where they meet. He was pretty great there. Other kids sat on the sidelines and played with each other while the dad’s did the heavy lifting. Gabriel was right there with a broom or a rake and he put in a good effort. I was proud of him.
So, now I am back at work – a doctor’s appointment scheduled for 1pm. Its only 9:20am and I think I need a nap. The family seems to be feeling better in time to get back to school, so I guess all’s well that ends well.
Sphere: Related ContentHAHA, you need to see this!!
Its foul and grosss, but not offenssive… well, maybe a little.
So I recently purchased a copy of Avid’s Xpress Pro HD. I have had time to install it and some of the accompanying software, but not all. And I certainly haven’t had time to actually edit any videos. In fact, I haven’t even fired up the program yet!
My plan for taking the software on a test run is to take my video camera to several cub scout events and then put together a montage of video clips showing life in Pack 615’s Den 3. That will actually take quite a while – it will take me several months to put together all the video that will be necessary I think. I was thinking I might do something similar for the boy scout troop, but somehow I don’t think the scouts particularly want to be filmed. They’re not doing anything wrong, they’re just older and … goofier as 13 year old boys tend to be.
Speaking of whom, they’re scheduled to go camping this weekend. The weather is predicted to be quite chilly. Lows should be around 30 degrees and the highs won’t get in to the 40’s. They’re going to be practicing standard scout-skills like orienteering and outdoor cooking and whatnot.. Ben has spent several nights out in cold like that and it hasn’t seemed to bother him too much.
I won’t be able to join him because my wife’s sister is driving her aunt up here for the weekend. I have to give my sister-in-law credit: it is very generous to make a long trip like that. In fact, she will be making a very similar trip BACK up here the following week for Thanksgiving. I should do something nice for her while she’s up here. I don’t know what it would be, so don’t hold me to it. But I should get her some kind of gift for going to that kind of trouble. Its very kind of her.
The weekend is looking busy. Tonight I have to spend the evening helping my old employer with a disaster recovery effort. So I don’t know how much time I will get to spend with our new visitors.
At work we’re also going through the biggest upgrade they’ve seen here in years. So on Saturday morning I will:
On Sunday I have to go back to work around noon I think to help out with the post upgrade efforts. I don’t know how long that will go – all afternoon I suppose. At 10:00am I have to pick up Ben from his camping trip and bring him home.
So this weekend will be kind of a drag – a lot of work and a lot of not being home to spend time with the long-lost-relative. I regret that but there’s no getting out of it.
*sigh*
Sphere: Related ContentSchool board to ignore state moment-of-silence law — chicagotribune.com
“We have no intention of either prohibiting or forcing compliance,” said board member Katie Bailey.
Rock and Roll!!
Student gets detention for giving ‘hug goodbye’
This is for real. What fresh insanity is this?! Apparently the student handbook bans public “displays of affection” and the eight grader got TWO day’s detention because she gave TWO hugs to friends. AND THE SUPERINTENDENT BACKED UP THE PRINCIPAL! The principal is clearly a nut and needs to be cut loose. So does the superintendent.
It makes the whole community look like a bunch of backwards imbeciles.
Sphere: Related ContentUSA Up All Night - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Did you ever watch a show on the USA channel called “USA Up All Night”? It typically had a host (Rhonda Sheer and Gilbert Godfried come to mind) and they would offer goofy commentary in between scenes of (usually) very bad movies. They were also pretty low-brow movies, but I loved them. We used to stay up all night to watch movies like C.H.U.D. and Porky’s and Bikini Car Wash. Ahh… the good old days.
I have no use for the USA channel now. No more Elvira. No more “Up All Night”.
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