New toys for Boys

So we took down the gate from in front of the fireplace in time for Christmas. It took Christopher about 30 seconds to fill the fireplace with toys. And himself.



Then Deb decorated for Christmas and did a wonderful job.



Then I decided I wanted to move into the 21st century and we bought a 42" LG LCD flat panel. So all of Deb's hard work went back into storage.



Here is a picture of Christopher watching TV. This TV even makes him look small!



Yes, Roger has been contacted and we will be fixing the ugly wiring over the New Years weekend

Shout Color Catchers - wish I had these in college!

I've meant to write about this for a while and I was reminded of it when I was doing a load of jeans this morning.

The other night we were at my boss' house for a small Christmas celebration. One of the women I work with started talking about how her boys do their own laundry. She told of how he separates the colors out and how he took it too far with every shade of brown/black/dark blue in its own pile.

So I asked her if she has 'color catchers'. See here for what I'm talking about.

I have two theories on who created these:
- a woman who was sick of her husband saying 'sorry honey, you know I always mess up the laundry, so why don't you do it'

- a teenage boy, who by nature is lazy and wants his mom to do his laundry, and is sick of pink or baby blue underwear. This allows me, um him, to throw everything in one load

I know I found out about them because of #1. I still have a number of things I'm not allowed to wash, but that list dwindles each year.

Pay more attention to your car than your girlfriend, and win a new one? (car that is)

Yes, that is what happened here. May be it is me, but isn't that sending the wrong message?




"Dodge has announced the winner of the "Are You Tuned Out" contest, which invited the boyfriends and girlfriends of gearheads to write a short essay explaining why their significant other was completely ignoring them. The winner was Zach Madrid of Colorado Springs, who was so tuned-out that he was unable to have a "civilized conversation" with his fiancйe if there was a car on television. As the winner of the competition, Madrid gets a brand new Caliber SRT4, which is sure to drive a wedge deeper into their already delicate relationship."

This reminded me (and Deb) of most of the years when we were dating, she'd call my parents house and my Mom would tell her I was outside working on the car. Especially the summer of 1988 when I put a new motor in the Capri.

Even today there are times when I'm working on the car instead of helping her. This picture is me installing a new clutch cable, quadrant and firewall adjuster on the 97. Yes, that is the drivers seat on the floor.

At least it will drop to $50,000 in a couple of years!

$104,000 insurance quote. Wow, I thought mine was high as a teenager.

I remember sitting in the kitchen at my parents house right after I graduated from college and being quoted $5000 a year for a 1990 Mustang GT. Oops, I guess I wasn't getting a GT for a while. I waited 7 years, which included getting married and turning 25, before I could afford the insurance on a 1997 Mustang GT. It has been all GTs since then.

For those who didn't get the subject: when a male turns 25 his auto insurance usually goes down by 50% or more. Not sure why being 25 makes you less a risk, but I didn't complain when it happened to me.

Looking at the article, 10 tickets in John, Pat and I combined (well, maybe not, John how many tickets did you pay for Pat?) No, the links aren't to the cars we owned. John's was a brown Z-28, Pat's was a grey Laser and mine was a white Capri.

Of course, since he has a 240SX he probably thinks he's a 'drifter'.

BBC America - new favorite network

So US TV sucks these days. Not just because of the writers strike, but the focus on reality TV.

So I started watching BBC America. To give you an idea of the tone, most of the shows start with a splash screen with

"the following program contains accents you would have heard a lot more if you hadn't thrown our tea into boston harbor"

Then

"to find out what on earth anyone is talking about, please use closed captioning"

Then they tell you what that is and how to turn it on. See an example here.

There are three shows that I really like:

Torchwood, which is a Dr. WHO spin off.

Top Gear which is a hysterical auto show.

Graham Norton, which is basically the most obnoxious talk show you've ever seen. They had the original Dukes of Hazard cast on a few weeks ago and I was laughing so hard I couldn't drink my beer.

They actually edit out the audio of the curses and rude comments instead of having FCC 'clean' versions of the shows.

Who knew? Part 1

Size 5 is not between size 4 and 6

Sorry dear

TTFN

This comic reminds me of my friend Jen from UMASS.

She was the first person I ever saw end her emails with 'TTFN' or 'PPF'. This was back in 1989.

Anyway, great comic

TTFN

(can you tell me what 'PPF' means?)

Ancient Irish beer makers?

The answer to the fulacht fiadh (pronounced "full-oct fee-ah") ?

Makes perfect sense doesn't it?

UMASS has the 2nd ugliest campus?

See here.

(My brother Pat went to Drexel, so he can't give me a hard time about this)

I remember the campus as being fairly nice when I was there (86-90), but it looks like it went down hill since then.

Maybe these guys don't appreciate steam heat?

It is good to be a boy - Part 2

So Christopher is getting to be more and more like me every day. Or so Deb keeps cursing.

Recently, he figured out how to open the 'child proof locks' on the doors. I'm sure you've seen them, you have to squeeze them and rotate to get the handle to turn.

At 21 months he's figured out how to open all the different ones in the house. So we're back to baby gates on all the doors. Now he's watching us open those and is trying to do it himself. Luckily he can't get the leverage he needs. Yet.

Oh yeah, most of the kids in the neighborhood who are older than 3 CANT figure these locks out.

He's also likes to watch football.