BBC Hilarity

At a BBC News studio in London last week, a computer technician named Guy Goma was waiting for a job interview when a producer mistook him for an "expert" guest (whos 1st name was also Guy) scheduled to go on the air. Confused, the Congolese immigrant was led before BBC cameras to comment, live, on a legal dispute between Apple Computer and the Apple Corps record label. Despite knowing nothing about the case, a visibly panicked Goma delivered sage declarations like, "Actually, you are going to see a lot of people downloading to the Internet and the Web site". Here's a link to the broadcast:

Bingo's Boys - The shocking conclusion

The next morning Buster and I met in his office. It turned out Ramona’s three mil had grown to about eight, mostly stocks and money market but with one small Reno apartment building, paid for and worth a couple of mil. Her will left everything equally to the two kids, Annette and Chopper. They had both been notified of their mother’s death. Both said they had keys to her place. Annette claimed she had not seen her mother in two years, that there had been a falling out over some personal effects from Annette’s grandmother.

Chopper, on the other hand, was in pretty close touch with Ramona. He saw her twice a week or so and, because of his proximity, knew about the will. Chopper was of course the main suspect in the case and, as it turned out, the only one.

I went back to the murder scene on Monday afternoon with a crime-scene guy we borrowed from the Vegas PD. With all the CSI stuff on TV now, there is more of this kind of thing going on. We found absolutely nothing. No sign of forced entry, and no sign of any struggle. The place was so neat you could make the bed and put it up for rent. No sign of a crime except for a dead lady, since removed.

Chopper had a fairly tight alibi; he had been playing poker with five friends at a small off-strip club from midnight until about five A.M. on the night in question. The friends were about as reputable as Chopper himself, but we had no evidence at all in the other direction.

We kept the case open for six months or so, then just closed it unsolved. This happens more than you might think, especially in Nevada. Ramona’s estate cleared; Chopper got the Condo and other real estate since he had the connections to handle it, and a couple million in cash. Annette got her four mil in stocks and cash, and also came into a five-year-old Buick Special with three thousand miles on the ODO.

As far as I know, only two people ever knew who did the crime. One is Annette, who planned the deed and is now my wife. The other is me. I did the actual shooting. We live modestly in Seattle.

Annette is kind of nervous about Chopper’s four million, and she is working on a plan to take him down. As for me, I must admit that my wife seems a little cold-hearted at times.

She just laughs and explains it like this: “Hey, you want to make an omelet, you got to break some eggs.”

Did I hear that in a movie somewhere?

Get Rhythm!!!

We recently snapped up a couple Johnny Cash 78s to play on our "new" Victrola record player.



The records aren't in the greatest condition - a true collector would likely turn their nose up at them, however, they play well and the music is great!

Feel the Eels!!!!

The Eels are coming to Sacramento!!!! Harlows, a club normally reserved for the same old tired cover bands like Wonderbread 5 and Tainted Love, finally has a real band coming to town. The Eels!

Classic Video Game "Pong" gets update

This new next-gen ping pong game releases for xbox360 tomorrow. I'm very excited about it. Previews say it is very deep and fun (like original pong) and features online play.

ACC Baseball

Here comes the somewhat bittersweet time for Georgia Tech baseball...the postseason. Despite ending the regular season ranked as high as #8 in the country, Tech finished 3rd in the Coastal Division of the ACC and 4th overall (behind Clemson, North Carolina and Virgina). They open the ACC Tourney on Wednesday against perennial baseball powerhouse Miami. They just won 2 of 3 against Miami this past week-end and neither team can be anxious about playing each other in an opening game. Maybe it would be better for Tech to collapse in the ACC Tourney and come on strong in the NCAA Tourney???

Best link to follow all the action is Beesball. Check it out and good luck GT!

New Candy Reviewed

Here's Hershey's all new Take 5 bar. The new twist is they've replaced the pretzel with a crisp chocolate cookie. It's good, but in my opinion the original Take 5 with the salty pretzel is way better.


Next it's new white chocolate M&Ms. I checked and it actually is white chocolate inside, not the sweetened palm oil clumps you find in Pilsbury cookies that try to pass themselves off as white chocolate. These things are very good. I highly recommend that you pick up a bag. My new M&M recipe is as follows:

Empty contents of one large bag of regular chocolate plain M&Ms into a bowl. Empty contents of one large bag of white chocolate M&Ms in the same bowl. Mix. Enjoy. I call this "Bill's Famous Polka Dot M&M recipe".

Week-end Review in Cali

It was another fun and busy week-end in Cali. Steph had studied a lot during the week and wanted to relax on Saturday so we take another trip to Napa. Focused exclusively on the Silverado Trail this time which is the road that runs parallel to the famed highway 29. We ended up hitting 3 new wiries in addition to some old favorites. We started out at Joseph Phelps, a great winery but a little too stuffy and pricey for us to visit more often. We knew we had arrived when we saw the first car as we turned the corner...



We then went to a few new places including Rombauer and Frank Family further up the trail. Rombauer is famous for their "buttery" chardonnay but we enjoyed the pariotic cow on the way in as well.



We had lunch in Calistoga, home of that famed bottled water and then went to look at the nearby "Old Faithful" of California. Upon arrival we were reluctant to spend the $8 each to get in to actually see the thing so here's the picture I took as a souvenir. If you want to actually see the geyser prepare to pony up $8 or click on the provided link.

Kindergarten chair art

I turned this chair over to a kindergarten class under the supervision of their teacher. I gave them lots of magic markers, and requested that the teacher withdraw the chair when she thought it was no longer improving. When I got it back, I did not care for the work on the top of the seat, so I sanded it off and redid it myself. I found that I could not emulate the style of six-year-olds, so I just didn't try. When done, I gave it a single coat of varnish.

Surpsise gift headed towards the weasel!!!!!

Yuki's Old Navy Fame

Nebraska Scene

Picture taken at 77mph on I-80

Bill's new reviews

Walmart has a new kind of gourmet jellybean wishing to compete with Jelly Belly. It's Gimbal's Jelly Beans. Priced quite a bit more cheaply than Jelly Belly per ounce, the Gimbal bag features 41 flavors. Many of these are direct knock offs of Jelly Belly counterparts, including: buttered popcorn, roasted (not toasted) marshmallow, pear, and tutti frutti. The Gimbal bean is a bit larger than a jelly belly. Flavor is not as smooth or loyal to the real world and the bean itself was less chewy than a Jelly Belly. In the end, the Gimbal bean doesn't stack up to the Belly. Not too shabby though, and priced right.

I went in with Erin to pick up the new Red Hot Chili Peppers double album. Reviews call it very good and I agree! It has 28 songs on 2 discs and I found it for 12.98 at Target. Good deal for a good record.

Continuing my dark chocolate phase, I couldn't pass up Paul Newman's Sweet Dark Chocolate Bar on sale at Walmart. It's good. Not as intense as some, but tasty and apparently organic.

NEW YORK - Gold prices surged

NEW YORK - Gold prices surged to a new 26-year high above $725 an ounce Thursday on inflationary worries expressed by the U.S. Federal Reserve.

Dad - it's time to sell the gold coins! Save one for each of the kids and sell the rest!!!!!

Dogs and Horses

We went to the horse races at Fonner Park. I bet 10 races and won on 8 out of ten. Strategy was to bet a good horse or the best jocky to show only. Good odds, except that at 5 dollars a bet I won an average of 2 dollars per winning bet. 16 dollars in profit, minus 10 dollars lost on the two losing bets = don't quit your day job.





Robert tipped me off that Old Navy was looking for a new doggie mascot. I promptly entered Yuki into the fray using the above headshot. Good luck Yuki!!!!

McDonald's Annual Report

The McDonald's Annual Report is out. This is always one of the more exciting annual reports to receive because it contains a coupon good for a new item that has been added to their menu. Perhaps I'm an easy shareholder to please - never mind about return on investment - just give me a coupon for a free burger. Anyway - what's even more fun is taking this coupon to McDonalds and using it. It has always thrown the cashier/order taker behind the counter into a complete tailspin and usually has the same result on the manager they call over.

This year the coupon is for a free Asian salad. I'll use it and report back.

Classic Album of the Week

I've rediscovered ZZ Top's Afterburner. If you own it, pull it out and stick it in your disc player. Try tracks 5, 6, 1, 2, 3, 4 in that order and rock out!

Pearl Jam

I got the new self titled Pearl Jam cd. I was never a big fan of these guys, but after reading the reviews I decided to pick it up for the under $10 price at Target. Turns out I really like this disc a lot. Tunes start out catchy on first listen and have gotten better and better with each subsequent spin. Great rock 'n roll cd. I give it 8 1/2 out of 10.