Hope your Halloween is less soggy than ours. I feel sorry for the kids slogging around in the rain tonight. The wet weather won't bother us -- we'll be inside watching football. Go Jackets!
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Singing Pumpkins, Flying Cats
Hope your Halloween is less soggy than ours. I feel sorry for the kids slogging around in the rain tonight. The wet weather won't bother us -- we'll be inside watching football. Go Jackets!
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Plastic Parts
Cheap, yes. And light. But not always the best idea. Two examples spring to mind.
Case #1 - the hated vacuum cleaner
We have 100% wood floors in our house, with a few area rugs. We also have an upright vacuum cleaner that got good reviews on Consumer Reports. It works great on the area rugs we have (all three of them) and would be excellent on wall-to-wall, since it is self propelled on carpets. But since we have lots of wood surface to clean, and it is big and bulky and hard to maneuver, and quite possibly a danger for scratching the floors, I end up using the attachments quite often to clean the wood floors. The wand attaches via a plastic nub on the nozzle that interlocks into a slot on the accessory. A soft plastic nub. Which wore down to nothing approximately six months after the warranty ran out. So I end up having to bend over to hold the floor cleaning attachment at the midpoint junction so that it stays attached to the hose (sort of) and get a huge cramp in my hand and it still falls out every few minutes. And did I mention that all those plastic parts somehow did not prevent that vacuum from weighing about twenty five pounds? Fail, and Fail.
Case #2 - the rolling cooler that no longer rolls
The rolling cooler is, in theory, a great idea. We have a definite need for such a device. Our football parking area is a long way from where our friends host the tailgate party (they donate lots more dough than we do, thus the premium parking for them). We used to carry our big assed cooler in by PDM carrying it in his arms. It doesn't really have handles so you have to make do. Not fun. So for Christmas, I got us a large capacity rolling cooler. And it worked great, for about a quarter of a mile, on the first day we used it. Until one of the wheels fell off. Upon closer inspection, the problem was that the metal axle got very hot from friction and melted right through the fracking plastic housing that attached it to the bottom of the cooler. Bad design, fellas. It is not rocket science to figure out that the axle would heat up. So why use a plastic with a low melting point?!? Maybe they should have used whatever the suitcase companies use, because those rollers work fairly well. Probably because they aren't PLASTIC. What kind of rolling distance did they use in their design calculations? Ten feet? You don't need a rolling cooler if you park right next to the picnic table. I would have designed it for at least a mile.
Buyer beware. Look out for plastic. Because it is NOT looking out for you.
Case #1 - the hated vacuum cleaner
We have 100% wood floors in our house, with a few area rugs. We also have an upright vacuum cleaner that got good reviews on Consumer Reports. It works great on the area rugs we have (all three of them) and would be excellent on wall-to-wall, since it is self propelled on carpets. But since we have lots of wood surface to clean, and it is big and bulky and hard to maneuver, and quite possibly a danger for scratching the floors, I end up using the attachments quite often to clean the wood floors. The wand attaches via a plastic nub on the nozzle that interlocks into a slot on the accessory. A soft plastic nub. Which wore down to nothing approximately six months after the warranty ran out. So I end up having to bend over to hold the floor cleaning attachment at the midpoint junction so that it stays attached to the hose (sort of) and get a huge cramp in my hand and it still falls out every few minutes. And did I mention that all those plastic parts somehow did not prevent that vacuum from weighing about twenty five pounds? Fail, and Fail.
Case #2 - the rolling cooler that no longer rolls
The rolling cooler is, in theory, a great idea. We have a definite need for such a device. Our football parking area is a long way from where our friends host the tailgate party (they donate lots more dough than we do, thus the premium parking for them). We used to carry our big assed cooler in by PDM carrying it in his arms. It doesn't really have handles so you have to make do. Not fun. So for Christmas, I got us a large capacity rolling cooler. And it worked great, for about a quarter of a mile, on the first day we used it. Until one of the wheels fell off. Upon closer inspection, the problem was that the metal axle got very hot from friction and melted right through the fracking plastic housing that attached it to the bottom of the cooler. Bad design, fellas. It is not rocket science to figure out that the axle would heat up. So why use a plastic with a low melting point?!? Maybe they should have used whatever the suitcase companies use, because those rollers work fairly well. Probably because they aren't PLASTIC. What kind of rolling distance did they use in their design calculations? Ten feet? You don't need a rolling cooler if you park right next to the picnic table. I would have designed it for at least a mile.
Buyer beware. Look out for plastic. Because it is NOT looking out for you.
Friday, October 23, 2009
Back to basics
SILVIO
Silv
Silvs
Silvey
Silvinator
Silb
Silbs
Silbee
Silbadee
Silbadilbadee
Sliv
Slivio
Slibidee
Slibadibadee
Slibs
Silbinator
Silbydee
SillyCat
Sillio
Sweets
Sylvester
Fussy Cat
Fussbudget
Fatso
Fat Boy
Fat Cat
Fat Butted Cat
Booger
Boogerrooger
Booger Bear
Boog
Big Boy
Big Fat Cat
Mr Cat
Mr Sil
Mr Silv
Mr Silvio
Mr Slibs
Mr Big Fat Cat
Mr Booger
Mr Sweets
Mr Mister
or just plain "hey cat"
Sunday, October 18, 2009
It was the shirt.
What a night! Tech won (The real Tech, not that polytechnic school from Virginny). It was the first time we've beat a top-five team at home since 1962. Coach Paul Johnson is a chessmaster. I think we've got ourselves another Bobby Dodd, folks. And I've got myself a lucky hoodie!
Immediately after the game ended, the students swarmed the field. We saw them carrying the goalposts down Yellow Jacket Alley about half an hour later, and I hear they ended up on the university president's front lawn.
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Mojo
I'm superstitious about sports. Very superstitious. An otherwise rational person, I somehow can't shake the notion that what I do or wear can affect the outcome of a game. Yes, I am aware that it is silly. Doesn't matter. I've been known to change seating position, refill or not refill a drink, switch out cats, or go to another room, all because my team was doing so much better while something was different and I am trying to restore things back to good. It's all about mojo.
Which brings me to today. We have a big, BIG game tonight and it is going to be cold. Much of my cold weather Tech stuff has bad mojo for one reason or another. There is no freakin' way I can wear one stitch of the stuff I wore to the bowl game last year. Not even the shoes. Anything I wore to basketball games last winter is suspect as well. (I'm not sure if mojo crosses over between sports, but who wants to take that chance? It's bad enough that I suffered through such craptastical basketball once. I'm not going to let it ruin a perfectly good football performance.) So my choices are to wear warm weather stuff with good mojo and freeze, or find something warm that hasn't been tainted.
I've looked high and low and finally found a gold hoodie that hasn't been infected with any bad mojo. At least I think it hasn't. And I am asking the Football Gods: Please, oh please, let me keep it that way. No more bad mojo. That hoodie needs to be my new lucky shirt.
Which brings me to today. We have a big, BIG game tonight and it is going to be cold. Much of my cold weather Tech stuff has bad mojo for one reason or another. There is no freakin' way I can wear one stitch of the stuff I wore to the bowl game last year. Not even the shoes. Anything I wore to basketball games last winter is suspect as well. (I'm not sure if mojo crosses over between sports, but who wants to take that chance? It's bad enough that I suffered through such craptastical basketball once. I'm not going to let it ruin a perfectly good football performance.) So my choices are to wear warm weather stuff with good mojo and freeze, or find something warm that hasn't been tainted.
I've looked high and low and finally found a gold hoodie that hasn't been infected with any bad mojo. At least I think it hasn't. And I am asking the Football Gods: Please, oh please, let me keep it that way. No more bad mojo. That hoodie needs to be my new lucky shirt.
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Schedule Conflict at Eight
Is it rude to check football scores during a live performance? What if you do it real quiet like?
During the heat of late summer, I received the annual mailer from Ferst Center for the Arts describing all of the performances of the 2009-2010 season. As usual, I looked it over to see if anything caught my eye. Noticed the "Third Annual Farewell Tour" improv performance by Colin Mochrie and Brad Sherwood on October 10 at 8:00pm. I cross check the football schedule (away game - no problem), ask PDM if he wants to go (sure), and I buy us some tickets. Then a couple of weeks ago the game time for GT at FSU is announced. October 10 at 8:00pm. Dammit, dammit, dammit.
My current plan is to surreptitiously keep tabs on the game using my iTouch and the wireless network. We'll beat it out of there as soon as the show ends and high tail it home. We can listen to it on the radio on the way. Hopefully we'll at least get to see the 4th quarter. And hopefully it will be worth watching. With all the drama this week over Bowden, I have no idea what to expect. We thought about going to a bar close to campus right after the show, but I figure most places will have Florida/LSU on their big screens. I don't want to drive around all night looking for the game.
Regardless of what happens tonight, one half of my "good college football weekend" is already in place. Georgia's defense actually made Crompton look like a good quarterback this afternoon.
During the heat of late summer, I received the annual mailer from Ferst Center for the Arts describing all of the performances of the 2009-2010 season. As usual, I looked it over to see if anything caught my eye. Noticed the "Third Annual Farewell Tour" improv performance by Colin Mochrie and Brad Sherwood on October 10 at 8:00pm. I cross check the football schedule (away game - no problem), ask PDM if he wants to go (sure), and I buy us some tickets. Then a couple of weeks ago the game time for GT at FSU is announced. October 10 at 8:00pm. Dammit, dammit, dammit.
My current plan is to surreptitiously keep tabs on the game using my iTouch and the wireless network. We'll beat it out of there as soon as the show ends and high tail it home. We can listen to it on the radio on the way. Hopefully we'll at least get to see the 4th quarter. And hopefully it will be worth watching. With all the drama this week over Bowden, I have no idea what to expect. We thought about going to a bar close to campus right after the show, but I figure most places will have Florida/LSU on their big screens. I don't want to drive around all night looking for the game.
Regardless of what happens tonight, one half of my "good college football weekend" is already in place. Georgia's defense actually made Crompton look like a good quarterback this afternoon.
Friday, October 09, 2009
Costumed CritterBlogging
Do you dress up for Halloween? How about your pets? I loved this article - the pets just look so... earnest.
Friday, October 02, 2009
Road Trippin'
see more Lolcats and funny pictures
Let see... no home game this Saturday and the awesome not-hot-not-humid fall weather has arrived. Days are comfortable and nights are brisk. The evening air smells of fireplaces. Our leaves haven't turned, but they're thinking about it. October is the unofficial start of bourbon season (or single malt scotch season if you are PDM), plus Oktoberfest means lots of tasty beers to sample - it seems like every small brewery is making a seasonal brew. And as Dave and Jim both pointed out, it is a great time to make hearty soups.
How to celebrate all this autumn goodness? Road trip! We're headed south to roam around Roosevelt State Park and Callaway Gardens, and we'll be ditching work on Monday to make a long weekend out of it. Ahhhhh.
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