February 2005 Archives
Million Dollar Baby has been on my list of movies to see but it looks like I waited too long. It is no longer showing at my local theaters. I guess it will have to wait until Pay-Per-View. It had a good night last night.
I wonder about BeCool. I loved Get Shorty mainly because it was a small movie. It was about the dialogue. This sequel might be reaching. The website shows John Travolta and Uma Thurman dancing. If the film makers are playing the Pulp Fiction card, they’re going to get people to the theater but can it live up to that hype? I seriously doubt it.
Saw two movies over the weekend. I caught one scene in National Security whilst channel-surfing and thought enough of it to set UltimateTV to record it. It’s been recorded for a while but I just decided this weekend to watch it. Yes, it was dumb. I also watched The Cooler. This one was harder to watch but a much better movie. Movies about Las Vegas and that atmosphere/environment usually turn me off. This one did, too, but I watched it until the end. Good movie, I suppose, but no fun to watch.
Quote of the Day
One of these days
I’m going to cut you into little pieces
Pink Floyd, One of These Days
Blog of the day from New Orleans is here.
Quote from said blog: "One of the main things I like about living in New Orleans is that spring comes in early February."
I love spring in February, too. -Rob
This is probably the last free weekend I’ll have for a while. The yard is starting to get green and I’m almost ready to get after the gardens. Spring is just about here. This is easily the mildest winter I can remember.
The unkempt back yard will go one more week before I take the tractor to it.
This rose bush never stops producing new growth. I stopped pruning it two years ago. I’m sure that’s sacrilege to most rose growers. I can live with that.
Quote of the Day
And he said, Boy, you better move real slow
And gimme your money, please
Bachman Turner Overdrive, Gimme Your Money Please
Blog of the day from New Orleans is here.
Quote from said blog: ""Harmony St. Charles" is the name that I've chosen to to use for this small publication that intends to highlight living in New Orleans. Found here will be postings about places to go, things to do with some light local politics thrown in for flavor."
No sunshine here in Bush today. It's a little depressing. Some overcast bad-light CrabAppleLane pictures for your Saturday evening:
Due back in Minnesota on or around March 5, this robin and a few thousand like him had better look into booking a flight. I suspect they’ll be fashionably late. OK by me. I like having them in the yard.
Azaleas are starting to bloom on CrabAppleLane. A little sunlight would have made this image quite a bit better, I think. Damn overcast.
A field I pass on my bike that I like. Among its many charms are the wild onions and daffodils.
Quote of the Day
You want me to get that?
Benson, Soap
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: "Today I discovered a place called Windsor Great Park. This place is amazing - and it is HUGE. It’s owned by Her Majesty the Queen."
There was a whole blog entry about the word smile when used as a command but Pitcherlady beat me to it.
The crud feels like it’s almost gone and it’s Friday. I have an errand to run tomorrow to the bike shop to get our free tuneups but it is otherwise a free weekend. If I was completely over the crud, I’d go visit my sister and her new addition but that’s not a good idea right now with my level of toxicity. Definitely next weekend though.
I haven’t been on my bike since my knee trouble started about three weeks ago. I will remedy that this weekend if the weather and the bike shop cooperates. I’ve started wearing a knee brace. It looks like this will be a permanent part of my life. It lends support, keeps everything warm and tight, and restricts the motions that might aggravate the arthritis. In theory, anyway. So far, it’s working.
I need I'm ready for a great weekend.
Quote of the Day
See, that’s the trouble with these things
You have to watch them every minute
Jeff Goldblum, The Big Chill
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: "Today we learn how to do a proper ribbon tasting."
The first line got me. -Rob
A few more tidbits today.
A new nephew born yesterday afternoon. Congratulations to Angela and Joey.
Estrogen Week continues at Ilyka's.
A blog entry about best movie openings at Sheila's. Lotsa fun.
Werewolves are out at Fragments from Floyd. Great picture. Reminds me of one of those old movies.
Love the blogroll at Kiwifruit.
Quote of the Day
I can’t help it bout the shape I’m in
I can’t sing, I aint pretty, and my legs are thin
Fleetwood Mac, Oh Well
Blog of the day via Pitcherlady is here.
Quote from said blog: "There were indeed a dozen or more people living in the house, and whether Beryl had given me a thumbs-up, or, more likely, simply told them all that I had given her a pack of smokes, they instantly considered me a friend."
NASCAR fans are mostly irrational. They hate Jeff Gordon for probably no other reasons except that he is too nice, too good, and not from the South. My favorite, Kurt Busch, is also not well liked by the faithful. The only thing he has in common with Gordon is that he’s not from the South. He’s a very aggressive driver which is a trait the faithful like in some drivers but not others. Tough guy Jimmy Spencer pushed Busch out of the way to get past him in a race I was watching a couple of years ago. A lap later, Busch pushed Spencer out of the way and everyone’s jaw dropped. That’s why I like him. He’s not easily intimidated by NASCAR’s good old boy network or their good old boys. The two have been feuding ever since.
We had Cream of Tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches last night. It is still my all time favorite comfort food combo. How did that ever get started? I've seen it on a Campbell's commercial but my mother was serving it to us long before I ever saw that commercial.
The crud lingers on CrabAppleLane. We are now entering Week 2. Days 3, 4, and 5 were murder. The other half is a few days behind me now in that Day 4 stage. Yeah, we’ll miss this if it ever leaves.
Quote of the Day
If we had more people like you
We’d have less people like you
Hawkeye Pierce to Colonel Flagg, MASH
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: "A couple of big names got penalized for speeding, Kurt Busch and Jimmie Johnson, it didn't hurt either of them when it came down to the checkered flag, but it could have. I was surprised that Rusty's name never came up with speeding down pit road, he's been nailed in the past by NASCAR many times, I'm glad he wasn't one of the ones penalized."
For those watching Carnivale faithfully since it first aired, a big payoff finally came this past Sunday. Got our first look at Management and some connections are now known. How this all started and what it’s about are still a mystery to me so I suppose I’ll have to keep watching. A good nugget like Sunday’s episode was welcome here.
Finally saw Runaway Jury this weekend. It was mostly filmed in New Orleans. It had moments but it’s typical Grisham with one party in the middle playing or being played by both sides with a bit of a twist at the end probably thrown in because it wasn’t all that interesting. I guess you could say it was better than a poke in the eye but that cast could have done something with a good story.
I’ve thought about this for a long time but have hesitated putting it here. A blog accepting donations and/or ads for revenue is OK by me. If you can make a living at this or offset your blogging expenses, have at it. Posting your hard luck story and asking your readers to send money now? I find that distasteful.
Quote of the Day
High on the parapet
A Scottish piper stands alone
Mark Knopfler, What It Is
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: "On February 16, 2005, the same day that the Kyoto Protocol entered into force without the participation of the United States, the Center for Biological Diversity filed a scientific Petition with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to list the polar bear as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act."
I only managed to watch the second half of the Daytona 500. I’m disappointed Busch didn’t try to take Gordon at the end. I’m not sure he had enough car under him but it did look like he made a decent run at him in the last turn and could have pulled along side of him. He would have had to do it all by himself. His teammates were nowhere around and he gets no help from anyone else. Mayor Jimmy has a different take but my guy always seems to finish ahead of his and this one was no different. :)
I was saddened to hear of Sandra Dee passing. I really liked her. My favorite of hers was I’d Rather Be Rich. I saw it at the show or the drive-in back in the double feature days. Yes, folks. Back in the 60's, for your $1 admission, you got to see two full-length feature movies and, usually, a cartoon before each.
I was less saddened to hear of Hunter S Thompson passing. He never made much of an impression on me. I found everything I ever read of his hard to get through. Still, I guess I’m sorry to see him go, especially like that.
Quote of the Day
You put it there
You get it out
Sandra Dee, I’d Rather Be Rich
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: "Looking for a stern, leather-clad dominatrix? Lady Heather has whipped up passions in two episodes."
I took an alternate route to the bonfire than I originally intended. I’m glad I did. The trip down Louisiana Hwy 40 from Bush, LA to Independence, LA is gorgeous since they re-paved it. The re-paving was crucial. Hwy 40 used to have so many twists and turns before that the only things you could look at were the road and the next turn. It was that bad. Leave your motion sickness at home. Now, you can take in some of the sites like the Global Wildlife Center in Folsom, LA. I still haven’t visited the GWC although I surely intend to. It’s not far from us.
Some pictures from yesterday’s bonfire:
For me, it started out inauspiciously. I got stuck in the mud as I arrived. Thankfully, my brother-in-law, Kevin, had his tractor and was able to find a tow strap to get me out. I had just gone through a car wash. C'est la vie.
This is Kevin putting his tractor to one of its other 1001 uses: A hay ride through the woods on a cool February evening.
My sister, Katie, trying to hold an Australian Shepherd puppy who was just a little bit excited. The puppy was a wiggle worm and a big-time food enthusiast. There was barbecue everywhere.
Harry lighting the bonfire.
Some relief that I wasn’t the only one that got stuck. Kevin may have found a new career if that diving thing doesn’t work out.
One for the road. The bonfire was perfect. Wish I could have stayed longer but I was running on empty by this time even though this fire had a long way to go.
Quote of the Day
I'm your huckleberry
Val Kilmer as Doc Holliday, Tombstone
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: "You may not remember the McLibel trial in Britain, the most expensive case, I think it was, in UK history. During the days I lived there, McDonalds did about as good a job as George W. Bush does today at promoting a positive view of the United States."
A morning of work will be followed by an afternoon of play. I hope to get to the bonfire before it’s lit but it will be close. I hope to have pictures of the towering inferno later tonight or tomorrow. Six people will be celebrating birthdays including myself and Harry, who is pictured in front of the bonfire on his four-wheeler. You know you’re in Louisiana when the invitation says to bring rubber boots if you’ve got them.
These were way too good to languish where they were and were no-brainers for the
Quotes of the Day
On the events of February 16, 1957:
Here are a few thoughts about this day, all those years ago. I was feeling punk, two days past my due date, but since I had never had a baby before, I had no idea that my punk feeling was actually called LABOR. Daddy was driving a cab part-time then since he was a college student, and he came home briefly for lunch around 3 p.m. I told him I just didn't feel right, and he became highly agitated and told me to hold on, he was going to take his cab back to the barn, and then he'd come home and take me to the hospital. I said I wasn't sure I had to go to the hospital; I didn't want to go and then be sent home. Well, it took him some time to come back for me and I waited, all freshly bathed and dressed in my black skirt and red and white blouse, lipstick in place, and hair arranged. We arrived at the hospital and they whisked me away while he tended to the admitting office. By the time he came upstairs, his parents were already there, and so were you. Thirty minutes from start to finish. Grandma had been gardening when he called to say we were going to the hospital, so she got herself dressed, along with nylon stockings and high heels, and when she took time to look at her feet, she saw that they were full of mud because she had been gardening in her bare feet! A first baby is such fun, but I've always thought it's a wonder that any of them survive the parents.
Three years and a day later (February 17, 1960):
On this day, 45 years ago . . . let's see.
The day before, I had a birthday party for Robbie, who had turned three. A noisy little bunch of neighborhood boys and Sue who would be two in a couple of months. I served a homemade chocolate layer cake, very delicious. I don't remember ice cream. I probably would have thought that was too expensive, so cake was enough. My insurance agent called right in the middle of it, and I asked him if he'd mind calling me back because we were having a birthday party. He said sure.
Okay, now I'm getting to the 17th, seven days past my due date. It started with a wake-up call at around 6 a.m. Water everywhere. When I told Daddy, he said get a towel (that's what we said to bed wetters back in the day), but I told him to call his mother and say we were on our way. That got his attention. We didn't dress Robbie and Sue, just put them in the car in their pajamas and took off. About a mile or two down the road, I remembered we had left the potty chair and since Sue was in the middle of training, we had to turn around to get it.
Janine was born around 8, shortly after we arrived, and the hospital was so crowded with mothers and babies, I had to stay in the hallway until a room was vacated. Daddy ran into a friend of his and brought him over to meet me, lying there in the hall, half awake and looking like a wreck, trying to be polite. Men!
Everyone was intrigued by the bounteous white hair. The first thing my mother-in-law shouted at me when she visited was that she thought "it was an albino." My other two babies had plentiful black hair, as did every other baby in the nursery that day. She really stood out, as she still does today.
I went home next day and almost as soon as I arrived, the phone rang and it was my insurance agent. Imagine his surprise when I told him I couldn't talk right now because I had just brought my new baby home from the hospital.
When my parents visited us three weeks later, Mr. Brandt came over to meet them because he and my dad both sold Prudential insurance, and those two telephone calls were the first thing he mentioned -- a birthday party on Wednesday and a new baby on Friday. He thought I was superwoman.
Virginia Mary Tompkins Ferrara aka Mom
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: "Well, it looks like deadpan's move went pretty smoothly. Everything looks like it's working and nobody got hurt. I don't think I cursed once during the process. I didn't even throw anything. Amazing."
Great name for a blog. -Rob
Happy Birthday, Kevin.
Well, that's one way to get them out. As Bugs Bunny would say, " What an ultra maroon ".
Yesterday morning, I started reading something that made me laugh. I started to cough so violently that I didn’t think I was going to make it to work. Trying not to let that happen this morning. However, I decided to take a chance because I must be the last person on the planet who hadn’t seen the Numa Numa Dance Video. It was OK but didn’t cause a cough episode.
Quote of the Day
”Our greatest natural resource
is the minds of our children.”
Walter Elias Disney
Today’s BOTD comes courtesy of Pitcherlady, who sent me the link. It’s yet another fabulous photoblog and it now resides with the others on the sidebar. A good many of the pictures are from Audubon Park, which is in Uptown New Orleans. If you ever come to New Orleans, this area of town is a must see. It’s right on the streetcar line off of St Charles Ave. Tulane and Loyola Universities are right next to each other across the street from the park and the fabulous zoo is part of it. When I was a senior at De La Salle High School in 1975, the Orleans transit workers went on strike during my last semester. I used to walk down St Charles past these glorious universities in the beautiful springtime. It was a 5mi walk to Tulane and Carrollton, where I would catch a Jefferson bus to home or work. Jefferson transit workers were not on strike, thankfully. That was the 8mi leg of the journey. My arthritic left knee aches at the thought of that everyday trek.
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog (February 17, 2005 entry): "A walk in the fog early in the morning in the park near my school. I even got to touch some sleepy birds who were too drowsy to resist it!!"
Love photoblogs. -Rob
Yesterday’s flu has been reduced to an annoying drip with mild congestion. It needs to just go away.
Tinkering with an idea. Haven’t decided if it’s any good or not. Might be a tad self-indulgent but that definition probably applies to all of blogging. Anyway, it’s what I was thinking about yesterday. Jeff Buckley made it famous.
Quote of the Day
You saw her bathing on the roof
Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew you
Hallelujah, Leonard Cohen
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: "Declining rates of reenlistment among right-wing pundits are forcing units on the home front in the War on Terror to operate at partial strength, limiting their effectiveness, say media sources. Factors such as long tours of duty, fierce and costly battles against a ruthless and evil enemy, and carpal tunnel syndrome have taken a severe mental and physical toll on the conservative punditry, and many pundits are opting not to enlist for second or third tours."
The flu bug has hit CrabAppleLane. Sore throat, head and chest congestion, slight fever, head and muscle aches.....check, I gots em all. Not the best day for that.
Levar Burton and me. Over the hill, Jerome " The Bus " Bettis, too. The Bus is 15 years younger than I. Yeah, that's good for what ails me.
No celebration today. Big bonfire Saturday for the plethora of birthdays in my family this week if the flu doesn't keep me in bed. Sister Janine’s is tomorrow, brother-in-law Kevin’s is Friday, and best man Chuck’s is Saturday although he’s in Chicago and I haven’t seen him in many years.
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: "Le Moyne College in Syracuse, N.Y., dismissed an education student for writing a paper recommending strict (and some would say “traditional”) discipline for younger students. He got an “A-” on the paper, but then was dismissed from the program by another administrator who cited a “mismatch” between his views and those of the college."
Another source here for that story. The school is in a no-win situation. If the guy beats the tar out of a second-grader 5 years fron now, some parent would find this paper and sue Le Moyne saying, " You knew all along ". Parallels to the priest scandal in Boston. -Rob
Update: It looks like the link will only give you one look. I saw it once and then it became a registration site. -Rob
I’m kinda between seasons right now ( Between one football season and the next although baseball did somewhat win me back last year ). Football is over. There is almost nothing I care about less than NBA Basketball. I do like the NCAA March Madness Tournament coming up in a few weeks. Yes, I’ll be running a pool as I have for the last few years. The Daytona 500 is Sunday and I’ll be watching that in HDTV and surround sound stereo. I’m not really the biggest NASCAR fan but I do watch it occasionally and I do have a favorite driver. I’ve liked Kurt Busch since he had his feud with Jimmy Spencer. I suppose they’re still feuding. Busch was also involved in the greatest race I have ever seen when he and Ricky Craven wrecked each other and crossed the finish line locked up together. I followed NASCAR a little closer when I ran a Fantasy League a couple of years ago. I won’t be doing that this year ( I never could figure out how to make it any fun ) but I am considering joining one still. Mayor Jimmy is getting worked up about the new season in his new digs. I’ll be keeping him posted about Busch’s march to a second consecutive Nextel Cup title and he’ll surely let me know about Junior’s exploits at the Super Speedways, where Junior tends to do well.
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: "Much as I’m loath to admit it, I’m already confused by some of the changes. Sure, every season brings a host of minor changes, a half-inch off this spoiler, a new crew chief over on that team, a driver change or a number swap. We’re used to all of that. But I’m drowning in details already."
I watched The Manchurian Candidate yesterday. This is the 2004 edition. I've never seen the original so comparisons are not going to be made here. I found it entertaining but a bit too long. After 2hrs and 40min, I found it disappointing and a bit unbelievable ( Well, the whole thing is somewhat unbelievable ) at the end that one of the main characters ( Meryl Streep ) couldn’t figure out what was going on. Still, it was worth seeing.
Back to the grind today but with crutches always nearby.
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: "Evening Low Tide"
Really nice pics. -Rob
Something bright on an otherwise bleary, dreary, gray sky winter day here at CrabAppleLane as the next picture will better illustrate. The temps are fairly mild so it’s not all bad.
10-15 horses once resided inside this fence. The last three feet of the near portion of the fence resides on my property so I guess that part is my fence. The horses have been gone for many years but you can still see where they used to teeth on the tops of the boards. Long before we built our house, we used to come out here with our dogs and a couple of bags of carrots. The horses loved carrots. Nikki, our Samoyed, loved the horses. He would wag his body and sing whenever he saw them. Duncan, our Sheltie, used to bark at them. Those were grand times.
After a day and a half resting my knee and feeling a little cooped up, I decided I was up for some previously made plans that had been thrown into limbo when the knee trouble reached its peak. We had a great time in Old Covington last night. Covington is one of the most charming cities anywhere and its mostly unknown. Mentioning that here is quite safe for keeping it that way, I’m sure. First, there was VooDoo Crawfish Rolls, Crawfish Corn Bisque, and Blackened Chicken Pasta at New Orleans Food & Spirits. We went there with two other couples. NOF&S was surprisingly not crowded, probably because we were a little earlier than usual.
Afterwards, Patsy’s friend and work supervisor, Ginger Pine, had an art show opening last night. This is surely the first time I’ve ever attended an opening. Lotsa fun.
Fort Isabel Gallery, 502 N. Columbia has a new show featuring Ginger Pine titled "The Flaming Flamingo." Pine is known for her electric use of color . The show opens Feb. 12 from 6 to 9 p.m. and continues through Feb. 28.
All of her paintings were very bright and very bold. I liked them. I was interested in one of them, in particular, but it was sold as were most of her paintings before we left.
After the show, we stopped at St John’s Coffee House. This is a great place to finish off an evening on a weekend. The coffee and beverages are cheap and the live music is free. There usually is a tip jar you can pass on your way out if you’re so inclined. I’m always inclined. Jude and Abigail were performing last night. They performed standards from Harry Chapin, Jim Croce, Nickel Creek, Alison Krauss, Gordon Lightfoot, and some I don’t know. Very entertaining.
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: "Okay, here's the idea. Basically, this Japanese producer I met here in Austin has a studio and an incredible amount of knowledge on various projects."
I'm sure Kim knows this site. -Rob
Dooce had 13 comments 4 minutes after she posted her blog entry this morning, 25 after 11 minutes. Probably why she doesn’t open her entries up for comments very often. How on Earth could she keep up with them? Protein Wisdom had over 300 on one of his entries and Sheila routinely gets 40-50 comments on her entries. Maybe, no definitely, this blog's obscurity is a blessing. I think the most I ever got here was 15, which included a few of my own. For me, that’s a party. As a 13hr per day worker/commuter that can’t blog at work, I could never keep up with a lot of comments on a regular basis without giving up reading other blogs or sleep and I already give up way too much sleep on this hobby.
A victim of Bloghosts, who also happens to be my brother-in-law, is back up and running his Divasaurs blog on the CrabAppleLane server. Divers are an interesting and strange lot. Not necessarily in that order. On a related note, the refunds email address at Bloghosts is no longer valid. None of my emails were ever responded to so I suppose I was hosed by Jace Herring for $75.
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: "Maybe ours is the last generation that cares about really owning our digital media. If this model takes off then I'll take it as one of the first signs that I'm "just getting old and don't understand"."
I've always resisted the term, geek, especially to describe myself. Now there's hard evidence. I am a geek. I knew what GoDaddy.com was before I saw their Super Bowl commercial.
I mentioned this incident on other blogs here and here. Think my comment was accidentally deleted on the latter link. Anyway, here it is for all to see:
—
Original letter to Bob Roesler of the New Orleans Times Picayune dated June 28, 1992:
Dear Bob:
I read Scott Osborne’s letter to you today about free agency. He cited the usual “New York and Los Angeles will get the best players” theme. He then cited the Pirates loss of quality players.
None of this has been proven to be true. A check of the standings today finds one New York team in second place trailing those same Pirates by 6+ games and the other New York team trailing Toronto, Baltimore, and Milwaukee. The Los Angeles team is in last place.
When unrestricted free agency comes to football, I foresee new players going to places where they think they can play, which may not be where they can make the most money. Football will not be ruined by free agency. In fact, fiscal sanity, which is in everyone’s interest, would necessarily come sooner in a free market.
Rob Ferrara
---
What got published in the Times Picayune on July 5, 1992:
Dear Bob: In Scott Osborne’s letter (June 28 mailbag), he cited the usual “New York and Los Angeles will get the best players” theme. He then cites the Pirates loss of quality players.
None of this has been proven to be true.
When unrestricted free agency comes to football, I foresee new players going to places where they think they can play, which may not be where they can make the most money.
In fact, fiscal sanity, which is in everyone’s interest, would necessarily come sooner in a free market.
Rob Ferrara, Metairie
Reply: On rare occasions, a player might go where he wants to play and live. However, it almost always boils down to money. By the way, free agency and fiscal insanity seem to have wrecked the financial stability of many major league teams.
—
I’ll comment later but I’d be interested in other readers opinions on what Roesler chose to print (He edited my letter) and respond to.
Update: If you're coming here from Abigail's guestbook, this is the link you want.
Light blogging for a few days here. Finally time to do something about my knee.
Details in the extended entry if you're interested in that sort of thing.
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: "My knee had a slight itch. I reached out my hand and scratched the knee in question. The itch was relieved and I was able to continue with my activities."
Wish it was that easy for me. -Rob
A few things that caught my eye this morning and last night that thoroughly distracted me:
The Brits must be keeping the Monarchy going strictly for the theater. No other explanation works for me. Carry on.
Not a beach person normally but this deserted beach via Kiwifruit could change my outlook.
OK, this guy is a complete idiot. No parts missing. Well, maybe two. The title of the article sums it up nicely, thankyouverymuch.
The 10 Habits of Highly Annoying Bloggers according to Jeremy Zawodny. What I find quite interesting about that list is that it’s almost two years old and still valid in this fairly new and constantly changing endeavor of blogging. Good job, Jeremy. Today's BOTD.
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: "First off, nothing Mark said surprised me. Yes, he was fired from Google. It was directly related to his blog. He was employed there for just a couple of weeks."
Mardi Gras, by most reports, was slightly down this year from years past. Bad weather, the early date, and probably the proximity to Super Sunday all contributed to a slower season. I avoided Mardi Gras this year as I sometimes do. I usually catch a few parades and generally get in the spirit for a few years and then I skip a few years afterwards. It was a holiday for most of southeast Louisiana so we planned to use it as a day to catch up on DVD’s and to relax. I started to doze about 20 minutes into the first DVD and Patsy ( Bless her soul ) let me sleep. I’ve been having a few restless nights. We own the DVD’s so we’ll just try to watch them another day. Otherwise, the day was just OK.
One of the few bright spots from yesterday’s blahs was a delightful note from Pitcherlady, who indulged in King Cake for the first time. She still hasn’t found the baby but she will. There are people around here that somehow never find the baby. :)
Speaking of Mardi Gras, the Grand Marshall of Saturday’s Endymion parade was Marisa Tomei. My brother-in-law captured her on her float looking like she was enjoying herself. Endymion is the biggest parade in New Orleans now and I have quite a few friends who ride in it but I still couldn’t bear to deal with the traffic and the hassle this season. Maybe next season.
Happy Anniversary - We've been on CrabAppleLane 10 years exactly on this day.
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: "New routines are hard. I'm not just talking about trying to learn the choreography for a new Britney video. No indeed. I'm talking about reprogramming your body clock and developing new habits."
Happy Mardi Gras
For me, it is a day off for watching DVD’s. Sorry for the lousy weather they’re having in New Orleans.
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: "This time let me share some of my experiences with how to sleep better. Who doesn't have a sleep problem? Or let us ask it differently, Who has always slept perfectly always? The answer is that we all have some sort of issues with our sleep."
Today is Lundi Gras in the Big Easy. It used to be a quiet day with a few lame parades as people rested up for Mardi Gras after a big weekend of parades. Not any more. It has turned into a big event now, too.
The Super Bowl was nothing like I expected. The Patriots looked quite beatable. I am surely curious about the Eagles fourth quarter clock management. No urgency whatsoever even though they needed two scores. Even after they had gotten one of them and got the ball back with under a minute to play, they looked lethargic.
After four weeks of playoff elimination style fantasy football, the First Ever CrabAppleLane Playoff Fantasy Football League has co-champions in Anteaters and The Winos. Congratulations to both teams.
The BOTD reminds me of an entry from Kim.
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: "I drive a lot. Last semester I had to go on two different highways to go to my college. I can understand old people driving slowly. I don't get mad when a semi thunders past me, shaking my car. I don't care if I miss a light. I don't have roadrage."
First things first. It says here
Patriots 48 - Eagles 23
The Eagles will go toe to toe in a shootout for the first 20 minutes or so but they will not be able to maintain the pace and the Patriots will pull away in the second half. I will be watching the Super Bowl in glorious HDTV for the first time. The major league baseball playoffs were dazzling. I’m expecting this to be even better.
Can’t decide whether to rest my swollen, arthritic knee this afternoon or to exercise it. A short bike ride a few minutes ago has me pretty stiff. Neither course alleviates the inflammation and the knee gets stiff and sore either way. Alternating between ibuprofen and Tylenol Arthritis Pain somewhat relieves the pain but so do hot showers and the pain is mostly minor anyway. Not quite ready to go down the path of doctors and prescription drugs yet. The inflamation generally goes away on its own after a period of a few weeks. Arthritis is not the lowest bad thing on the chart people might choose to live with but it is surely not the highest thing on the chart. Hypertension, carpal tunnel, and any form of cancer or heart disease would surely top arthritis. This isn’t so bad.
We return to our saga of the Mallards today as the same four ducks are repeating the courtship ritual a week later in the same pond. Maybe she does crave the attention. Maybe she comes from money.
The State of Louisiana’s Income Tax filing website kicks butt. I filled out the boxes in a matter of five minutes yesterday and filed my taxes online. It did all of the calculations. There is no charge to the citizen. That’s the way it should be. That’s what the IRS will do some day and Turbo Tax will be a thing of the past. My preference is to not have too much withheld during the year or too little and the goal is get within $100 either way. All said and done, we owed them $5. Close enough. The website allows for them to debit my checking account and that’s that. I’m done.
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: "I feel like I should post more blogs that relate to my title, and that exemplify why I felt it necessary to constantly bitch about living here in South Louisiana, so a found a recent news story which prompted me to do so."
The blogger is somewhat dissatisfied with life in Louisiana. -Rob
I cannot smell sweet olive. The scent, supposedly powerful, eludes me. I like them, anyway, but I would surely like to smell them to see what the fuss is about. At our old house in Metairie, I had ten of them. After I plant the two I bought last Sunday, I will have five here in Bush. I plant them for Patsy. They remind her of her childhood and her uncle, who said they were good luck. I like them because of their looks. I can smell the pines in the yard, the honeysuckle, the wild onions, the wild and cultivated gardenias, the fresh cut grass ( Not today, thankyouverymuch ), and the wild mint that grows along my back deck. But not the sweet olive.
Our vacuum cleaner is about ready to call it quits. We’re starting to look around. These are tempting. We would need two of them and I’d have to see a demonstration before I could take a chance on them. Still, I think it’s the wave of the future but I really thought this would be here a lot sooner. I seem to remember something similar in a Doris Day movie in the 60's. It was The Glass Bottom Boat, I think.
Powerful stuff from Joel Caris. Link via Sheila. It’s the BOTD.
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: "I wasn't prepared to hike in the snow. I didn't expect to encounter snow. It was the middle of June and I was on the first leg of my road trip, staying a few days in Glacier National Park in Montana. Since it was the middle of June, in fact, the title of this post isn't quite appropriate. But ultimately, this is about the snow, which equals winter to me. So onward I'll write."
Great pictures, too. -Rob
Something my sister said reminded me of a story yesterday. Patsy and I were on our second trip to Walt Disney World in Orlando. Our first trip was our honeymoon. Now, it was December 1984 and Epcot, although not quite finished, had just opened. We were in the Italian Pavilion and it was lunchtime so we decided to try Alfredo’s. Alfredo’s is quite famous. Ever heard of Fettuccine Alfredo? This is the guy and they make their own fresh pasta on the premises. You can watch them. That was enough for us. It was not enough for Alfredo’s, though. Tables for two are reserved weeks in advance and we had just walked up. There was an elderly couple from New Jersey also waiting. They asked us to join them because tables for four were more readily available. They were very nice so we gladly accepted.
As we started telling each other a little about ourselves, they latched on to my last name. All of the Italians they knew in New Jersey must have been recent immigrants. Assuming I knew the language of my ancestors, they started speaking to me in Italian. Ciao and spaghetti is about the extent of that language within my grasp. I took German in high school. I was a bit embarrassed that I had to stop them but we had a laugh about that. They spoke to the waiter from Naples in Italian, ordered in Italian, and toasted each other throughout the meal in Italian. Forgot to mention: They, themselves, were not Italian.
The man had been in Italy during the war. A bit homesick, he had carved his name and his wife’s name into the base of a mountain just outside of Florence like any teenager carving those things into a tree. Sometime after he did that, the Allies bombed that mountain and everything around it. He had not been back to Italy since that time until the summer before we met them that December. He and his wife smiled at each other as he told us his carving from 40 years ago was still there.
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: "I admit it. After a fully-caffeinated re-read, I realize that I deserve the Chastening Perry Head."
Great name for a blog. -Rob
A little politics and college football. In Louisiana, they were once quite intertwined. Governor Huey Long was a big LSU fan and was purported to have some influence over LSU Tiger football matters.
Minimum politics: Didn’t watch The State of the Union last night. I am thoroughly burned out on politics. Admittedly, it doesn’t take much. We have news coverage and blog coverage of all things political now. It’s way more than I need. Or want.
College Football: LSU did alright for themselves yesterday in the recruiting department. The team’s most glaring need was addressed. Inconsistent quarterback play hurt them in a lot of games and put a lot of pressure on their defense. I don’t think they were national championship material last season but they would have beaten Auburn in that early season game and would have played for the SEC Championship if their QB’s were more consistent. They signed the top-rated recruit, Ryan Perrilloux, in the country yesterday, who happens to be a QB. I think college football fans will start hearing his name next season by mid-September.
Running a little late again this morning. Or as an old work colleague used to say, " It's getting late early. ".
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: "Californians. Texans. New Yorkers. Most americans know these words. But who can tell me what someone from New Hampshire is called? Wyoming? Delaware?"
Mini-rant: I filled out a form and faxed it to a company to establish automatic payment from my checking account. It saves a stamp and it is convenient for me. I faxed it in over two weeks ago. It has not been processed yet. Looking at the form again, I estimate that it would take all of 30 seconds for someone to input this information into their computer. It would seem, to silly me anyway, that it would be to their advantage to process such forms in a timely manner. When I was a kid back in the 1960's, I used to occasionally send off for things on cereal boxes. It always said “ Allow four to six weeks for delivery ”. That mentality still exists in corporate America in this age of lightning fast computers and instant global communication and I just do not understand it. The thought that my form with financial information about me has been sitting on someone's desk for days or weeks doesn't sit well with me, either.
This is a miserable Mardi Gras season so far. It has been cold and raining since Saturday. We haven’t seen the sun in over a week.
OK, who can resist this photo?
Frankly, I am tired of the comment spam topic almost as much as I am tired of comment spam but I wonder if this interviewee from The Daily Irrelevant is legitimate. What I don’t understand is why the guy would agree to the interview. There’s nothing for him to gain from it. I have a plugin employed here that blocks comments from known open proxies and I see an occasional line in my logs saying “ Moderated comment post from known open proxy: xx.yy.z.aa ". It is only a fraction of the spam that tries to get by here. Anyway, self-imposed moratorium on writing about comment spam will be in force after this entry.
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: "Scientists have begun blurring the line between human and animal by producing chimeras—a hybrid creature that's part human, part animal."
The Iraqi vote in Nashville from Pitcherlady.
The Iraqi vote in Amman from The Daily Irrelevant.
The Iraqi vote from Your Daily Prescott.
The Iraqi vote from Margi Lowry.
The Iraqi vote from Sheila O'Malley.
The Iraqi vote from Instapundit.
Isn't it just marvelous that a lot of those pictures are of women?
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: "The most touching aspect of it was that they brought their children with them. I haven't seen Iraqis taking their children out in months, and now they bring them to the most dangerous places in the country, on the most dangerous day of the year."
