funny photo

I found this on Fark.com and thought it was hilarious.

click on it to see it well.

Why did I poison the dandelions?

If I took a picture of the border between my lawn and my next-door neighbor I wouldn't need to type this.
My lawn is litterered with dandelions. Hundreds of them.
His lawn has not one. He has no clover, no crabgrass, no nothing. Just bright green thin-leafed grass.
Me? I got it all, a regular jungle.
He's been in the house a couple of years while we just moved in so I have a bit of an excuse. Still, I have great lawn envy.
So, while Mary and Lucy were in New York, I put down the weed and feed - twice. Plus, I wandered through the yard with the broad-leaf weed killer gun shooting poison on every yellow head I saw.
When I got home from work the other day,Mary had rearranged the table on the back deck and I noticed a jar on the table filled with some rather sad looking dandelions.
Lucy was in the yard picking more.
"Lu
cy," I said, "I wouldn't pick those. Daddy poisoned them."
"Why did you poison the flowers daddy?"
"They're weeds, not flowers."
"They're flowers."
"They're weeds."
"What's a weed?"
"It's a plant you don't want."
"I like these flowers."
I am a monster.

Audio posts and snow and computer crap

Jason Sandford showed me the link to audio post and you can see my first one just below this. Not much to say. Just thought I would check it out.. very cool feature. I guess I could use it to add to my blog while I was on the road and away from a computer.

It is snowing here. Has been all morning. Not too bad, but enough for April 24

I spent the better part of yesterday tyring to load a driver on my old computer so that I could use my key drive....no luck.. not sure what I am going to do..
kind of sucks.

More later, got some work to do.

growing up

It bugs me that I own a wheelbarrow. Even though I find it handy.

new photos

I should go to bed right now, but I visited Wal-Mart today and got my latest disposable camera disposed of.
First, there is this one:

Click on it if you want to see it real big, but I don't recommend it. Lucy likes popsicles. A lot.
Me? I like my food a little more sophisticated, but I am no less stupid about it.

You can click on that one too. Of course, it is corn, beer and chunks of hickory soaking in water. What else?
This was the street in front of our house on April 2:

Here is one of the little things that Mary does that make our house look fabulous:

It really does look great and she is making it better nearly every day.
I finally have an Ohio plate

Here is how I remember my plate Dumb Luck Fucker
98 is the year I started with Gannett and 57 is the year before I was born.
Easy.
Finally a photo Lucy took of Mom and Dad. Can you see the terror in our eyes?

More later, must sleep.

Country the way it oughta be

That's Shooter Jennings up there.
He is Waylon Jennings' son.
I have ordered his album and I have only listened to a few clips but I think I am going to like him.
He came to my attention when I was looking at bookings for Martin Zellar (no, he is not playing in Ohio) (click for upcoming gigs in Marion).
Shooter is playing at the same club as Martin; the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa.
Clear Lake, Iowa, is of course where Buddy Holly died and Waylon Jennings, of course, was there that night (American Pie) and did not get on the plane. (isn't this cool? Or, at least, slightly ironic?)
Anyway, I bought Shooter's album based on its title. It's something I used to do as a young man because I just wanted to listen to anything clever.
The album (or CD) is called "Put the 'O' Back in Country"
Irreverant and clever ... I had no choice

This is from his Web site, so take it with a grain of salt, but I like the sentiment:

"Hoss, it's country music, the way it ought to be - alive with blood and thunder, spit and spirit and Southern soul.

Waylon fought this battle in his own way, back in the day. But the sun has sunk and the shadows have spread deeper across country music since then. And as cowboy poseurs roam this dim and dreary land, Shooter sets it ablaze with an affirmation that country music - real country music - is back.

And this time it's not going away.

'The main thing I want people to understand is that I'm a country artist," Shooter says. "Sure, there's rock in there. I've played a lot of rock & roll. I take a lot from it. But it's country music. And I'm going to push it as far as I can because it's that important.'"

The Faces of Bathtime

click on these pix for a real treat.

Days away from the office

Today is day two of new manager training for me. I have been attending a lot of these sessions over the past few years. It is good and bad.
I am better at figuring out when to speak up and worse at playing the games - or activities.
I am getting worse at the games because I know there is always a trick. Trying to figure out the trick generally slows you down. If it is a good game the trick becomes apparent when you try to accomplish the goal through normal means. But if you abandon normal means and try to find the trick right away you are bound to be slowed down.
I have to learn to go with the flow.
The training is in Newark, Ohio (map) which is about a 90-minute drive from here.
It is my third visit to Newark and so far all I have seen is the newspaper office and the Newspaper Group office. Someday I will do an actual visit. It looks like a nice place.
I listened to Elvis Costello's Delivery Man CD on the way down yesterday and All Things Considered on the way back. I am thinking the Tragically Hip might get play this morning.
Must go.

Overboard on grill

OK, I might have gone a bit overboard on the charcoal grill I bought yesterday.

But, I have a very large deck and he weather has been incredible for about 3 days in a row. You can hardly blame a boy.
Lucy liked her first rugby game. The Marion Rhinos won 49-0 over a team from Northern Kentucky. The eat squirrel brains in Kentucky, or so I have heard.
Two days of training coming up this week, so I will miss a lot of work, that I will have to make up somehow.
For you Gannett folks, I got my Well Dones done with a day to spare. We managed to have 14 entries this time - up from 10 last quarter. Need to work on online and M&D, but I am feeling pretty good about it.
It is very different writing every entry. You don't know how good you got it in Ashvegas.

Baseball vs. Rugby

I do have an issue with Chief Wahoo and the whole Indian thing. I really don't understand the need for it.
The reality is that I am more likely to go to a Clippers game in Columbus than venture all the way to Cleveland and spend three times -- or more the money when my only aim is to sit in the sun, drink beer and watch a little ball.
Here is an interesting take on Chief Wahoo - very funny and (be warned) extreme parody.
When the high school in Saranac Lake was getting ready to change its nickname a columnist at the Plattsburgh Press Republican had a very funny idea. I think his real intent was to show how ridiculous the nickname issue is. Certainly, they shouldn't be offensive and it is ridiculous for their defenders to take them so seriously. It is a nickname for sports teams made up of teenagers - It is only the teenagers themselves that should give a shit and they should do what we tell them and like it.
Anyway the columnist from Plattsburgh suggest changing the name from Redskins to Redskin Potatoes


NEW TOPIC
Today I am taking Lucy to her first rugby match



Hope she likes it.
Speaking of politically correct. The annual rugby tournament in Marion is called the Teapot Dome Rugby Scandal, after Warren Harding's (Marion's favorite son) famous scandal.
The Harding Home people made the rugby team change the name in the early years but at some point relented. The history is a little muddy.
Anyway I am looking forward to getting to know the fellows on the team.
I still won't play -- too much money in my teeth.

Look at this picture of a player on the Montreal Wanderers Club.
He recieved these injuries in the first half of a game, got taped up and returned for the second half. I understand they are considering legal action. I don't think the injuries were the result of fellows playing with the true spirit of the game in mind

Baseball 2005

I want to get excited about the Indians this year and I hope the Nationals suck for many years while the Orioles do well and get all the fans.
The Indians are on the Fox sports network somewhere that I can only get if a pay extra.
I can watch all the cubs and braves I want. The American league needs a superstation.
I have a feeling that, and this has been happening for a long time, my interest in Major League baseball will wither away to nothing this year.
OH well, I have a bigger yard.

Kid next door

I was 42-years-old when Lucy was born.

By the time she got to high school or college I expected to get some cracks about my age.
BUT! Yesterday I overheard her conversation with the 4-year-old that lives next door.
"How come your daddy," he said, "always looks like a grandpa?"
For the sake of my sanity I am going to assume that this kid has a couple of good looking grandpas.

It's snowing here

Yup snow.
Had a couple of days where you could go outside in a sweatshirt and be relativly comfortable and today it is snowing.
We were going to go to a yard sale today, but I think we will bag that.
Had an exhausting week at work and came home absolutely pooped Friday night. Went to bed about 10 p.m. and got up 7 hours later. I woke up after six and that was as long as I could stay in bed. It is not like I have a lot of energy and want to do lots of stuff. I just don't want to be in bed.
Iron rusts from disuse; stagnant water loses its purity and in cold weather becomes frozen; even so does inaction
sap the vigour of the mind.

Leonardo da Vinci