Carving Pumpkins

Last night, the girls and I carved three pumpkins. I did the traditional "scary" pumpkin with triangle eyes, two slits for a nose, and sharp, jagged teeth. Brittany carved a tinker-bell like fairy. Bekah carved a large, round hole.

Bekah says the hole is a doorway into the pumpkin house. To the casual observer; however, I feel the hole looks just like what it is -- a big hole. You could, with some imagination, think of it as a giant, gaping maw awaiting its next victim. That's how I prefer to think upon it now.

We had a lot of pumpkin seeds, so we baked them. I don't like pumpkin pie or bread, but I love baked and salted pumpkin seeds. Don't you wonder who first came up with ideas to do things with seeds?

I think, if the early-settlers didn't know what to do with something, they simply baked it. No matter what it was. Think about popcorn. How do you think that was invented? Probably, some early-settler didn't know what to do with the dried kernels of maze and baked it. Pop!

They've probably baked apple seeds, but they're poisonous. They probably baked peach-pits, but they explode in the microwave and sharp shard of peach-pit get scattered across the kitchen like so much shrapnel.

Here's how I imagine it....

****Somewhen in the mid-1600's in the colonies of America****

The women are standing around the solid oak kitchen table carving up these newly grown pumpkin fruit thingies and wondering what to do with them.

Aunt Mary-Martha: "Let-ith us-ith cut-ith up-ith the flesh-ith and bake-ith them-ith for pies and cakes -iths.

Aunt Mary-Gertrude: "Sound-ith like-ith a plan-ith!"

Young Cousin Mary-Mary: "Prithee thee ladies, what-ith of the seed-iths?"

Young and beautiful and slightly more modern Cousin Jane: "Let's bake them!"

The other ladies, standing around the table, simply stared at young and beautiful Cousin Jane and blinked. Realizing her mistake, Cousin Jane repeated: "Let-ith us-ith bake-ith them-ith."

"Ahhh," nodded the ladies in agreement. Of course, if you don't know what to do with something, bake it! What were they thinking???

Later, Granpa Jedidia, upon sampling his first baked pumpkin seed remarked, "They-ith need-ith salt-ith!" and gruffly thrust the bowl back at Grandma Mary-Mergatroid.

Hence was the pumpkin seed treat born.

All the other gentlemen were secretly afraid of Cousin Jane for her modern ways and speech patterns. All, that is, except for her beau, Third Cousin Robert. He liked smart woman. He kept his preference secret though. Third Cousin Robert and Cousin Jane often snuck out together and held hands, even though they knew they could be stoned for it. They did it anyway.

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Which brings me to another point -- marrying a smart woman. You know, I thought I was doing a good thing by marrying a smart woman. It's really something you should seriously contemplate.

I can't get away with anything. Nothing. Nada. Period. Barb (The Evil Overlord) is on to me with every sneaky thing I try to get away with. With eyes that watch hither and thither and an exacting and calculating mind that' s as sharp as can be, I can't pull the wool over her eyes in any fashion.

A smart wife makes for good conversations and the occasional intelligent offspring, but don't count on being able to get away with any shenanigans if you marry a smart woman. You've been warned.

If you've already done the terrible deed and have married a smart woman, you have my sympathies. I'm with ya man. Really. If you've not, and you go ahead and marry a smart woman, you've been warned.

Well, I guess you can have my sympathies too. Misery loves company.

Birthday Boy

Saturday was my birthday. Barb was out of town visiting Charlotte, NC. We still had stuff there she decided she needed to pick up this weekend. So, she went.

Saturday morning, Bekah woke me up. I asked if I could sleep more. Bekah said no. I needed to wake up. Hence, Brittany delivered a hot plate of birthday-boy breakfast foods. Eggs, corned beef hash, and pancakes with birthday candles alit on them.

Ben brewed my coffee, so I had a fresh cup. I enjoyed a most wonderful breakfast.

I was super tired Saturday, so I just rested. I didn't even shower or change cloths. I ordered delivery Pizza for dinner. I stayed up late though and watched my favorite weekend shows on Adult Swim: Full Metal Alchemist, Inuyasha, and Samurai Shamploo. I have to say though, Samurai Shamploo is a bit strange.

As much as I like Japanese Anime, I can't recommend the show: "Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo". It's a show I can't comprehend. You don't believe it's a show? It is, check it out:
http://www.tv.com/bobobo-bo-bo-bobo/show/34817/summary.html?q=bobobo

My 19-year old daughter bought me three things: An MP3 player I picked out at FYE, the DVD "Ciderhouse Rules" (which I highly recommend as a movie), and another DVD I don't think I'll mention here.

Bekah picked out for me (and Barb bought) some plastic food containers and a corresponding "lazy susan" thingy. They're plastic containers of two sizes and the lids that stack on the "lazy susan". After I unwrapped that gift, Bekah washed all the containers and lids and put it together.

I've noticed a few containers in-use now too -- with things like pieces of construction paper in them, etc. Bekah's really enjoying the gift she picked out for me. When she washed the containers, she used like 8 kitchen hand towels. I ended up washing them all yesterday. I didn't want our supply of kitchen hand towels to be depleted.

The boys didn't do much though. I think they contributed some to the MP3 player, but it wasn't terribly expensive ($60.00). What I wanted was a cheapo MP3 player that had a memory expansion slot. That's what I got. It will let you put in up to an additional 512MB as an SD (secure digital) card. It already has 256MB RAM.

Personally, I just don't see the need to spend a huge amount of cash on an MP3 player. A Gigabyte of memory is nice, but a tad excessive for most applications. I can put half a novel on 256MB. If I get an expansion SD, I can probably get a whole novel on it. No biggie.

I put on a book-on-CD on it and let Brittany listen to it Saturday while she worked on a sewing project. Brittany's been combing the yardsales all summer long for velour. She's making a velour blanket. On Saturday, she spent a few hours cutting variously sized squares out of her many pieces of velour garments.

If you've not started downloading Podcasts, check out http://www.ipodder.org/whatIsPodcasting or any other web-site on Podcasting. I already downloaded and listened to the Podcast novel by Scott Sigler (http://www.scottsigler.net/earthcore/) called Earthcore.

Free novels on the Internet all legal like! Wow. I like it already. Plus, Earthcore is a good novel!

Friday, October 21, 2005

I didn't have a better title, so I used today's date.

My Greek professor in college told us the ancient Romans were like me. They didn't have any better way to name their children, so they numbered them. Very unimaginative, if you ask me. For example, they'd have their first son and name him "Marcus."

That situation worked well until their second son arrived. Hmm. What to name him? We already used Marcus. Can you think of another name? Nope? Me neither? Okay, let's name him "Secondus" (for second).

I know you've heard of "Quintus" for fifth, and I'm certain you've heard of "Octavius Caesar" for Eighth.

You don't believe me, do you? Check this out:
http://www.behindthename.com/php/view.php?name=quintus

Yeah, they really did that. Can you imagine?

Anyway, so I titled today's BLOG title, "Friday, October 21, 2005." Don't be expecting me to spout pure genius all the time. I just can't live up to that kind of pressure!

Okay, so... Barb is on the road. I got home from the dentist yesterday and she announced she wanted to drive to Charlotte, NC today. We still have some stuff in our old house there we need. "I'm going to Charlotte by myself. I'll leave early Friday, pick up our stuff on Saturday, spend the night with Tammi, and return on Sunday."

I'm like, "Uh, can you at least take one of our children with you? Brittany? Bobby? Even Ben!???"

No, that won't work out. Brittany is in college and really can't miss a day. Bobby has a math quiz today and a big lab assignment to turn in. Ben... well, enough said there. I think.

Bekah wouldn't be much help either and she has school and dance class later this afternoon.

Barb called our friends and neighbors. My sister Karen is taking Bobby to school this morning. Bekah will ride the bus home and get off at a friend's house rather than our house. The friend's mom will take Bekah to dance class and then home. Later, another friend's mom will pick Bekah up and take her somewhere else.

I can't remember where or why. Hmm... I should probably know that detail, but I do know how to get in touch with them, so I'm okay, I think.

All the kids are taken care of. Barb's on the road. I know she'll be fine by herself, but I'd rather she had someone with her on the drive there.

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The other day, I looked out my window here at work and saw a cop mounted on a horse walking up the street. That's not something you'd see in Charlotte. There are definitely a lot of different things about working in Albany, NY.

Another thing is I work in an area surrounded by banks. We've had at least two bank robberies while I've been sitting across the street. On Wednesday, I looked up and there were like 10 cops surrounding the Bank of America right across from me.

We figured another robbery (ho hum). I went out to get my bus pass for next month and there was a cop on a bike sitting there. I asked about the robbery. He stated someone accidentally hit the silent alarm button. It was a false alarm.

I'd certainly hate to be that person! Can you imagine? Oops. I hit the silent alarm! Oh no!

My mom has this thingy she wears around her neck in case she falls and is alone. It's the "help, I've fallen and can't get up" button.

If she accidentally hits it, it goes off and there is NO WAY to reset it. You have to wait for them to call you on the intercom thingy. "Mrs. Coleman, are you all right?"

"Yes. Sorry. I accidentally hit the button."

"That's okay. I'll reset it now. Thank you. Bye."

Same deal except 10 cops don't show up at your door.

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Tomorrow is my 44th birthday. Barb is out of town. I think she likes to leave me alone on my birthday. Nah. I'm kidding.

There's a woman I work with here named Crystal who will be 23 on Sunday. So, she's almost exactly 21 years younger than I am. Not only that, Crystal's mom and dad are both younger than I am. They had her while in high school.

So, I'm older than the parents of one of my co-workers. Yeah.

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I went to the dentist yesterday and had a temporary crown put on. I get the real crown on November 10th. I saw her measuring the color of my tooth for the crown and said, "No. I want a gold crown."

"Are you kidding?"

"No. Look at my other crowns, they're all gold."

"Oh, yeah. But, you're kidding right?"

"No. I really want a gold crown."

"You're serious? Sometimes, people kid with us when they tell us they want a gold crown. You really want one?"

"Yes. I'm serious."

Jeepers! You'd think I was some crazy crackpot, wanting a gold crown? What's up with that? What's wrong with wanting gold teeth?

If I had my druthers, I'd have ALL my teeth made of gold. I asked my old dentist in Charlotte if she'd do that for me. She said no.

I asked my new dentist yesterday, she said no too. Barb also says no. What's up with woman not liking gold teeth? I mentioned my desire for all gold teeth to Barb's brother, John, one day a few years ago. John thought it was a terrific idea!

I think that's just another basic difference between men and women. Women don't really like gold teeth. It's probably in the same category as "Are farts funny?" To a guy, almost any guy, farts are just hilarious. To a woman, farts are no laughing matter.

I'll never understand how anyone can not find farts just too funny for words. I'll never understand why a person wouldn't want metal teeth. It just doesn't make any sense to me.

Daily Blogging

My friend, Benjamin McDonald, says that if I'm not blogging nearly *daily*, then it's not really a blog.

Okay, okay. So, I'll blog more. Okay? Jeepers!

Working in Albany, NY is interesting.

First off, I ride the bus in the morning from Schenectady, NY to Albany, NY with almost exclusively state-workers as co-riders. Last Monday, Columbus Day, I didn't have off. I don't know of any non-Governmental business other than the banking industry that actually gives its employees Columbus Day off.

So, I get on the bus Monday morning with two other folks. The total of three of us rode the bus from Schenectady to Albany.

On the way home, I was the ONLY rider. I told the driver, just take me to the Greyhound station in Schenectady. You can drive the highway the whole way. He said he couldn't because of liability issues if he was in an accident in a place not on his route.

I still got home 15 minutes earlier than normal.

There's a lot of moving to and from NY City here in Albany. A young woman who was one of our secretaries here at the office just moved to NYC. Another developer just moved to Manhattan as his live-in girlfriend got a job there.

One of our program managers moved from NYC here a few months ago. I think lots of local businesses and general people in the area move to and from NYC often.

I don't know about you, but when I think of NYC (coming from Charlotte, NC), I think of folks who've lived there all their lives, etc. It's kind of interesting "rubbing elbows" with folks who've lived there, worked there, are from there, etc. At least for me.

The bulk of the 911-tragedy (not to lessen the importance of the Pentagon or the flight that crashed) happened in NYC. This is the Twin Towers state!

I've only been to NYC once, really. I've been through there at a Greyhound station a few times, and once, in a fit of stupidity, some sergeant and I drove in and quickly drove out of the city when I was on a TDY to Newark as a 1st Lieutenant in the USAF.

The scariest place I've ever driven, though, is Berlin, Germany. That was terrifying. NY might be scary, but Berlin has it beat by a long shot. They have mad-crazy busses barreling down the right-hand lane where no one else is allowed to use -- unless you're turning right. Watch out folks, I gotta swerve in front of some insanely accelerating bus so I can come to a screeching halt to turn! Woo hoo!

That's enough for today. I hope your freaking happy, Benjamin.

Knee Surgery Again

I had my fourth meniscus knee surgery this past Wednesday. It was my third on my left knee. Fortunately, I think this time my surgery was successful. I'm still pretty sore, but I think the knee is finally without the constant pain I was feeling from before.

They gave me an epidural, so I was awake during the surgery. I was definitely uncomfortable. Plus, when I watched the doctor saw away at the inside of my knee, I got a tad nauseous. He just "punched" into me knee with the tool and immediately began chewing away at my cartilage.

No gingerly cutting and putting in the tool. He just pounded on my knee with it, was in, and began cutting away. Then, he took out this thing called a Plica. That may have been the problem all along.

I watched all this on a t.v. monitor. They didn't let me see the actual work on the knee itself. The nurse asked if I wanted more pain medicine before he started, but I said "no" because I wanted to see what was going on.

I'm thinking I should've said "yes" regardless. However, last time, they doped me up with so much morphine, I didn't remember a think. As nice as that was, I really wanted to see what was going on this time.

Let's see... what else is going on.

Brittany turned 19 on the 5th. I turn 44 on the 22nd. Megan, my sister, turned 29 on the 11th. Kristen, another sister, turned 43 on the 8th. We're both 43 years old right now. My mom says they (whoever they are) call that Irish Twins (when two siblings are born less than a year apart).

So, Kristen and I are the same age for two weeks (exactly) every year.

Megan got engaged to Bill on the 10th. He got on his knee and asked her at midnight, the 10th. So, guess who gets a call from his mother at 1am on the 10th?

I'm like, "Who died?"

"Nothing's wrong. Your sister wants to talk to you."

"What's wrong!"

"I got engaged! I just wanted you to know right away!"

Gah. It's One-Freaking-AM-in-the-morning! "Congratulations honey! I'm so glad for you. Can I go back to sleep now?"

She actually went into Karen's house (another sister) and got her out of bed to tell her.

Megan also called Kristen at 1am.

We really do love Megan though. Really. Congratulations Megan, if you're reading this.

Megan doesn't know when they're getting married.

We had a mega-birthday party for all the October babies yesterday. We had 20 people at our house. Bill was also born on October 11th (same as Megan whom he's engaged to now -- but he's like 37 years old and Megan is 29).

All the food was cooked, all the dishes prepared, and the high winds in the area knocked over a tree which took out a couple utility-power poles which took out our power. So, we celebrated without any power. No biggie.

I did; however, go to bed at 7:30pm last night. With nothing to do (electronically) and with no lights, you go to be early! I slept until 6am!

Ben got up at 2am and woke me up (that's okay 'cause I had to pee anyway). He didn't have anything to do. I showed him the bookcase with books in it. He grabbed a Harry Potter book and read. He was still reading at 6am.

Ben did complain that being offline was a problem for him. He wondered, at 2am, if I could take him to the local library. He wanted to let his online buddies know he'd be out of commission for a day or so.

I said I doubted the library was open for business at 2am. Plus, I was going back to bed. I was still tired at 2am. I don't know why, but I was. Can you imagine that?

We still had no power this morning. I don't know if Ben will survive the day, but I think he will, somehow.

That's all for today.

Random Stuff for October 1st

So, I'm sitting here rebooting my computer and my wife is looking at the caller-id list on our phone.

"Who is Brian Kelly?"

I'm thinking furiously. Who was that person who called this morning? Oh yeah...

"That was Jenna." (a call from Jenna for Brittany)

"Why is his name Brian Kelly?"

At this point, I pause and all brain activity ceases. I don't know what to say. Perhaps, his mother named him Brian Kelly? Why is anyone named the way they are? Is this one of those mysteries of life that're unanswerable?

Barb answered her own question though, "Oh, Jenna's last name must be Kelly."

Yeah. I would gather that also. Of course, that information doesn't exactly explain why Brian is named Brian Kelly, but Barb's answering her own question allowed me to keep my mouth wisely shut.

===========================

While I was eating dinner last night, Barb was telling me she took our 12-year old son, Ben, to the mall yesterday. According to Barb, it was a "...really good day at the mall. Out of the last three times I've taken Ben to the mall, this is the first time a security guard didn't yell at him."

I paused, fork half-way to my open, gaping maw. "What happened the other two times?"

Apparently, security guards don't appreciate a running, lurching 12-year old boy trying desperately to go down and upward bound escalator.

In a similar fashion, said security guards (at another mall this time) don't appreciate a 12-year old boy greedily scooping coinage out of the fountain in the middle of the mall. Ben's explanation on this event was, "I wasn't stealing it! I was just throwing it back."

However, Friday's visit to the mall was security-guard event free. Something I'm glad to report to you all.

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I had a very, very shameful thing happen to me about two weeks at work. I really hate to admit this, but confession is good for the soul, right?

I was caught... listening to Cher.

I just really like that Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves song. So, I like listened to it about 12 times in a row. Apparently, headphones aren't really always all that quiet. After about the 11th time in a row Vic asked me if I was listening to Cher.

Shamefully, I admitted my guilt.

Laughter occurred, directed at my general location. Later, Vic played Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves for all of us over his speakers for the whole room to hear (dedicating it to me).

I didn't listen to it for days afterwards. Even when I finally got up the courage to listen to that song again, I did so with the volume turned way, way down.