Memorial Day Recap

While the rest of the family was gathered in Arkansas we celebrated the long week-end in California with a limited agenda consisting of a few barbeques with friends and work around the house.

Here's a video of Jack at a friend's house...



We managed to sneak away for breakfast a few times. On the way back Jack wanted to stop at a fancy park they are building close to our house to sit on some of the bulldozers.

On the way to the bulldozers.



At the big Case!


On the smaller 'dozer. You can see the big one in the background.


The week-end also featured the first family trip to SBarkles to wash Kodak!

What's That In The Rearview Mirror

One of Jack's favorite things to do after breakfast on Saturday is to go through the car wash. This is him as we wait our turn to drive in.



Saturday morning breakfasts out with Dad have always been one of my favorite things and Jack likes them too. He'll often declare several times during the week (and at any time of the day), "I want to go to breakfast."

We'll do it again in just a few minutes - once he wakes up!

Rolling Stones: Exile On Main St. (Rarities Edition) Review

The Stones have a new "old album" out continuing a growing trend in the music business. In this case, they've also included a bonus CD of 10 "new" songs not included on the original double album. There are multiple buying options for this re-release. If you only want the 10 new songs there are two places to go. If you want the actual CD, which I opted for, you must go to Target and shell out $10... OR you can opt to buy the deluxe version which is available much more broadly and includes the 10 new songs plus the original album for $22. For those trying to shed themselves of their CDs all the usual digital options are available from what I can tell.



Now I'm far from a Stones but after a listen or two I'd give it good marks. Definitely has an older feel to it. Dancing in The Light is one track that stands out. Plundered My Soul is the single from the album that is doing pretty well. The song title might be a little better than the song itself though.

The album stormed at No. 1 in the UK charts, almost 38 years to the week after it first occupied that position. The Rolling Stones are the first act to ever see a classic work return to Number One decades after it was first released.

The Pella Sliding Door

We finally got our new Pella sliding glass door installed. This thing is pretty much the Rolls-Royce of sliding glass doors. We're talking triple pane, super heavy (means super good), sliding shades inside the glass, multiple foot locks, and a hide-away roll screen that disappears when not in use. This thing wasn't cheap, but I'm impressed by the quality of the door and the install job.

This first picture shows the door with the interior shades completely up. The handle you see in the center of the door is what you pull to produce the hidden roll screen.

Here, the shades are completely down.

Here, Riley and Emma are enjoying the fresh air through the screen.

Finally, here's the door from the exterior.

New Portable Camera

We've continued Canon trend from a point and shoot perspective with the acquisition of a Canon PowerShot SD780 IS. It gets good reviews and is slightly smaller than previous models making it highly portable. I've been experimenting with it and like its ability to quickly change manual modes. Here are some of the best new snaps I took this past week-end.



Mission San Francisco Solano in Sonoma, CA


Transamerica Tower in San Francisco (from North Beach neighborhood)

Union Square Ads of Our Time - San Francisco

Voters Approve Haymarket Arena

It's official, Lincoln's Haymarket is in for big change with this new arena coming. Let's hope the thing is profitable!

THIS is the Official 2010 World Cup Theme!

I like that Shakira number, but I like the official World Cup by K'naan better. Has to potential to be 2010's "Song of the Summer".

World Cup is Approaching

What's your take on the 2010 World Cup Theme song - sung by Shakira???

Folsom Lake Nearing Capacity

Folsom Lake, with the April rains coupled with snow melt from the Sierras, is starting to fill up. Here it is about 830,000 acre feet vs. the 977K capacity.



If you click on the picture to expand it you can see the Folsom Dam in the top-left portion of the picture. It was pretty windy as you can tell from the water.

Here's a graph showing the rapid, yet fairly normal, rise in the lake since January.

Pretzel M&M's

Every year we've been to the Berkshire Hathaway meeting, they've been promoting the newest candies from M&M's Mars, often times before the product hits the mainstream market. This year, the new candy I'd never seen before was Pretzel M&M's. They're kind of like almond bark covered pretzels, except they're better because they're made with real chocolate instead of a palm oil derivative like most almond bark. Pretzel M&M's are pretty good, but I found them to be a little light and airy. Also, there didn't seem to be very many in the bag. They're nice for a change, but these won't take the place of classic plain M&M's in my book.

The Boy in The Bubbles

Jack was in a playful mood during his bath the other night and started laying down in the bubbles. We got this snap...



Hey then started running around pushing his popper toy while clad in his blue dog towel. Here his is, stopping just long enough to feign a smile for the camera.

The Screwdriver Collection

We organized our garage this weekend, including all the tools. Here is a picture of all the screwdrivers we possess. There are about 44 screwdrivers in all. Yuki is show for scale.

Ben & Jerry's Boston Cream Pie Ice Cream

I picked up this new pint of ice cream the other thinking fondly of the Boston Cream donuts they sell at Dunkin. Out of the gate Steph was not impressed with my flavor selection. Then she tried a spoon. She then declared, "this is good!" and proceeded to start digging around for the cake pieces (which she is prone to do)



I agreed - this is ice cream that is worth trying despite the fact that it has little chocolate bits in it. I'm not a fan of the little chocoloate bits as I think the cold ice cream invariably make them taste kind of waxy. B&J got this one right though.

Now this is CA Weather!

Looks like the rainy season is ending out here in CA!

Jack Slides Through Four Orange Noodles

We met a lot of Jack's school friends at a park last week-end. One of his favorite things was sliding through a bunch of noodles. He probably did it 10 times before he had enough.

Seventeen counterfeit bills, and a real one.

On Sunday morning, Carol and I found a bunch of $100 bills outside IHOP. Sadly they were counterfeit, all having the same serial number. There were 17 of them. I took them down to the police station, where the cops informed me that the quality was not that good and that there had been several attempts to pass such recently. The careful observer will notice an 18th Bill, in the lower right corner.

Tails of Gracie

Back in 2006, Carol and I saw an ad in the paper featuring Boston Terriers for sale at $250 per. We went to the place, and found an out-in-the-country puppy mill where the dogs were terribly mistreated. I bought Jake there, and at that time I could hold him in the palm of one hand. By now Jake-the-snake is well known to readers of this blog. A little female Boston was running loose, and followed us wherever we walked. The puppy-miller said her name was Gracie, and that Carol could have her for $200 since she was a little older than the other pups. Since Carol had two Bostons at the time, she was able to resist. But we never forgot little Gracie. In '08, Carol took on a rescue dog from another puppy mill, a three-or-four year old Boston named Lira. I suggested that Lira be renamed Gracie, but Carol opted to keep Lira as the moniker. The next year, both of Carol's old Bostons had to be put down, so it was just Lira and Carol. And so it went, until today. We spotted the following ad in the Jonesboro sun: Terminally ill woman needs good home for a three year old, spayed, female Boston Terrier.

We called, and the lady said yes, the dog is still available, and her name is Gracie. I told Carol that the planets seemed to be lined up on this one. We drove to Trumann and the lady gave Carol the dog, crying as she did so. Gracie is a sweet little biscuit, as you can see below.


Carol and Lira and Gracie will all have a new home soon, as seen in the next picture. Carol bought the house, brand new, and expects to close next week. Dick's new truck is also featured in the picture.

Twix Java

This is a good bar if you like coffee flavored caramel. I would describe this as a regular Twix with the addition of coffee flavor. If you like regular Twix and you like coffee you might like this. If you've ever enjoyed eating a regular Twix while drinking coffee, you might like this. If you could subtract the coffee flavoring out of this, you would end up with something like a regular Twix.

Ode to Ugly

Ugly Betty wrapped up its four year run this past week. While it wasn't the best of shows it was generally pretty darn good aside from a few wayward plot lines. One less thing for Tivo to go after as Steph and I both enjoyed watching it and had it on our perpetual "to do" list.

Upon completion of Betty this evening I was hoping to swap in our new Tivo Premiere unit...but alas the old Tivo was in the process of recording a new Desperate Housewives. It is a must do tomorrow as we have the M-Card being installed Tuesday. A review of the new Tivo box will follow.

Jack and the Full Moon