Genetic Engineers
What good are they? Until they can turn the flesh-eating bacteria into a fat-eating bacteria, they can just shut up.

From the Carnival of Recipes
Morning Glory Muffins. Oh boy do these look good!
Anyone care to come to the BlogDoghouse and do a little baking?

Late Nite Snacks
I was feeling a bit peckish last night so I decided to go to Wendy's for a little finger food.

I Steal Yet Another Bar Joke
A vampire walks into a bar and asks for a large glass of A-positive blood. The bartender says, "I'm sorry, but we don't serve your type here."

Stolen from here. A likely addition to the blogroll in the near future.

A Very Cherry Morning

This is the cotton candy that's blooming outside my office window.
In about three days it should be in full bloom.
Gorgeous and fleeting - the samurai ideal.

Today's Stupid Joke
What is a masochist's favorite fuel?

Footy!
The season is underway.
I watched this weekend's highlight show (which runs a week behind the actual results) and saw something that left me dumbfounded. St. Kilda's Stephen Milne takes a mark (catched a ball on the fly) against the Kangaroos in a round three game. When a player takes a mark, he is allowed to back away from the goal unhindered and then run up to a kick that's almost free. Any mark taken inside about 40 meters from goal will usually result in a kicked goal (six points) or at the least a behind (one point). Milne took his mark at about 20 meters. This, even for a weak leg is about as automatic a goal as can be expected.
But Milne, in one of the dumbest moves I've ever seen, tries to play on by running to his right. If a marking player elects to play on, he is immediately subject to being tackled and Milne was about an arm's length from two Roos when he tried his move. Needless to say, he was taken down straightway and ball went over to the Roos. Dumbass!
In a manner of speaking, it was immaterial because the Kangaroos won by more than a goal but it was by one point more than a goal. If Milne had just taken his kick, it's possible the Saints might have fought up at least a behind and tied the game up.

I realize that my entire post means probably nothing to you but if you know footy, it was a really quite extraordinary play.

WTF?
I'm not predisposed toward foul language (the hell you say! -Ed.) so I should apologize for the head on this post but the phrase bounces around my poor cranium like a billiard ball made of flubber. I mentioned earlier that I'm going to have my pad re-roofed and since I signed the contract with the roofer, I've gotten a couple of things in the mail from them. The real head-scratcher is that I got a CD. A music CD. It's presented as "music to distract you" while our workers pound out their own magic rhythm on your dwelling.
Ummm. OK. Here's the lineup and perhaps someone can explain these choices to me:
"Everything I Own" by Bread
"Listen to the Music" by the Doobie Brothers
"Take Me Home Country Roads" by John "Crash" Denver (sorry)
"Our House" by Madness
"Sweet Caroline" by Neil Diamond
"Late in the Evening" by Paul Simon
"Send Me On My Way" by Rusted Root (only one with which I wasn't familiar)
"Solsbury Hill" by Peter Gabriel (great song)
"Dancing in the Moonlight" by King Harvest (that's reaching back)
"Peg" by Steely Dan
"Fields of Gold" by Sting (might be his song but Eva Cassidy did it better)
"In My Life" by the Beatles
"Son of a Preacher Man" by Dusty Springfield (best song about heterosex by a lesbian - ever)
"How Sweet It Is" by James Taylor (did he ever get the treacle out of his guitar?)
"Knowing Me, Knowing You" by ABBA (is it OK to like ABBA yet?)
"Give a Little Bit" by Supertramp (what ever happened to them?)
"Brandy (You're a Fine Girl)" by Looking Glass (what no follow-up hit song?)
"She's A Lady" by Tom Jones
"Southern Cross" by Crosby Stills and Nash (the other great song on this disc)

CSI Miami Is Starting To Irk Me
First, they chose to kill off Tim Speedle instead of the Hispanic pretty-boy oxygen waster. Last night they managed to get DNA tech Valera (the delightful and delightfully named Botti Bliss) bounced for an infraction that ended up pointing out the episode's killer.
I'm not about to argue the morality of the infraction or the legal aspects of it. I'm just ticked off because one of my favorite minor characters (who, by the way, has gotten progressively hotter as the show went on - I think they've togged her out and amped the hairstyle to make the change) is out the door. C'mon! Give her the job back. Or give her a bigger role on another good show so I can indulge my taste for eye candy.
Selfish? You betcha!
Still in all, as long as Emily Procter remains on the show, I will be watching. Ice blonde gun goddess - be still my foolish heart!

As They Say About the Pope
Smoke 'em if you got 'im.
PoW welcomes Pope Benedict XVI and extends our (my) non-Catholic wishes for a long and fruitful papacy.

Comments
(looking around, under books, behind the desk) Whurd ey go?
I have no idea what's up with the absent comments. Blame Blogger.

UPDATE: Oh. They're back. Cherish them.
They grow up so soon, leave home and you just never see them again.

At Last
Candy floss is being spun outside my window. Pictures tomorrow.

Three Words
Unfortunately for every thinking American Pamela Anderson has resurfaced in a sitcom. She was entirely suited to (ahem) home video and despite her inflated charms (which are lost on me by the way), I will say only this: she is a step up from Paris uptotheHilton. Of course that's like saying cat poop is less offensive than monkey poop when both are flung in the faces of the viewing public.
Oh, the three words: No. No. & No.

Aww Damn!
Subtle mercy is sometimes shoved aside by rough life. TV previews have reminded me that one of the previews I saw is for the new version of "House of Wax." Try "House of Crap." Any movie that dares to include talentless mega-bim Paris "Up To The Hilt"on does not deserve to be made. My mistake - Paris does have a talent. A talent for sucking. But I digress.
Every got dam dumbass teenager slasher flick trope is greased and shoved up the ... projector of every moron moviehouse in America in this crapfest. Let me suggest to the "film makers" that the very idea of someone closing a glass door in the face of a threat is beyond laughably stupid. Then again, there's my blurb for the movie based on the in-theater preview: "House of Wax - Beyond laughably stupid." You may quote me.

Oh Bugger!
Festus has decamped from the gentle confines of Northern Virginia for the more southerly soil that he calls his own and I am missing his good cheer and natural engineering ability already. Since he came up for a "visit," I have a new master bathroom commode (a "chair height" throne, dubbed "the best seat in the house" by me), a freshly painted door in my garage, shelves hung in the closet in my office. There were other things done as well but not worth burdening you, the reading public, with. The short version is that we had a great visit and accomplished many good things.
So why the title of this post? One of the things we'd hoped to do was install some blinds I'd ordered. Naturally they arrived today. And the cherry trees in front haven't busted loose yet either. Ah well, there goes Gloria Mundi.
Still in all, the capper was the visit from the roofer today. My west-facing roof has suffered from the high winds we've had. In fact, several shingles have blown off entirely. I learned also that there had already been a couple of patches made to that face of the roof. I talked with roofer. I came to the conclusion that it was time ro re-roof. Bugger. I did not want to drop that much cash a year after moving into my new place but sometimes it is necessary. So sometime in the next six weeks, I'll have the fun of living through all the dislocations of a total roofing job.
In other news, we saw "Sin City." Dayum. A work of cinematic art. I'll rent the DVD when it comes out just so I can see all the "making of" features. I especially liked it when Elijah Wood was dismembered. But that's just me.
On the other hand, I have just seen the biggest load of craptacular previews ever. "XXX, State of the Union," the new "Amityville" movie where the horror is the crapiness of the film itself. In an act of subtle mercy, I have forgotten the rest. Tom Criuse in "War of the Worlds" looks like a winner though. Go figure.

Louis Rukeyser
Though he has stepped down from his weekly TV show for health reasons, I'm sure he was cheered by the fact that the PBS program Wall Street Week, that he hosted for over 25 years, was recently cancelled. This is not to say Lew is a vindictive sort. I'll just state my view of the facts: he was unceremoniously dumped by PBS at the height of his popularity so they got what was coming to them.

I'll never forget the Friday I read about his being phased out for a younger, hipper host by PBS. They were hoping to let Lew do a victory lap so they set a date two months into the future when the new host would begin. As soon as I read the story I had a feeling that the evening's Wall Street Week would be memorable. Let's just say Lew did not disappoint during his opening monologue. He immediately took PBS and their new sponsor Fortune Magazine to task in his own reserved and dignified style. When he was through everybody concerned knew this was his last show. No riding off into the sunset for Lew. He went out on his own terms and within 6 months had a new show on CNBC that crushed the old show in the ratings every week. So when I read about his old show's cancellation I couldn't help but gloat, even if Lew wouldn't.

Footnote: After he was fired not one of his guests ever appeared on Wall Street Week again. It was a point of honor with them, and I would imagine the realization it is hard to keep a good man down. Get well soon, Lew.

A Mushroom Delight
The BlogDog will surely sit up and take notice of this regarding a mushroom boom in Alaska. I certainly know the thought of all those morels sets my mouth to watering. Here is the summary:

Morel mushrooms, treasured for French cooking, often thrive on land in the year following a forest fire, and Alaska set records in scorched earth last year.

I love to cook with mushrooms though have never had the inclination to cook with some of the more expensive morels that appear ready to flourish in Alaska. I guess it's my Scottish thriftiness at work, though if I find a local source or make a roadtrip to Alaska this could change.

A Love Of Cities
I admit to what some call the European tendency to love cities. I'm reminded of this every year when I see the reports that the Cherry Blossoms are in bloom in Washington, D.C. In my younger days, I spent many a happy moment wondering among these aforementioned blooms marveling at the fact that thousands of people would sit in traffic for hours just to reach out and touch them. These good times are something that I will surely recollect, as the poet Yeats once wrote, "when I am old and grey and full of sleep, and nodding by the fire."

Yes, Washington is a favorite city of mine. I am also fond of New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. They all have shown me their good sides at one time or another. Though in the spring give me Washington and the Cherry Blossoms everytime!

What a Weekend!
This weekend must have been one of the most fabulous we've had in the greater DC area in ... I don't even want to say how long. The weather was luscious: blue, cloudless skies with brilliant sunshine and fresh breezes. I am not particularly bothered by pollen so I'm not one to say that pollen was absent but I don't see the evidence of much pollen yet (that hideous greenish-yellowish overlay of pollen dust that coats everything when the trees are all hot for each other). And Atlantic Cycling had its first ride of the season. The link takes you to the main page but be sure to click on the Leesburg 4-10 link on the left side navigation column for all the details.
I ran the first rest stop and it was wonderful. Two years ago I did the same stop on a windy, cold ride and it was not hideous but not altogether pleasant. Yesterday I saw a lot of people togged out in bike gear (bike jerseys should not be worn anywhere other than on a ride but they are colorful, diverse and exceedingly cool in context). I saw a boatload of extremely cool bikes that one doesn't usually get to see outside of "Bicycling" magazine or a bike shop. One woman had a very new Kestrel triathalon bike that was a work of art - gorgeous. She said she's going to be running the Boston Marathon this month so PoW wants to wish her the best for that endeavor.
My cherry trees, which I mentioned earlier, are still not all tricked out. In fact, they're only just nnow showing red at the bursting of the bus covers. There are Bradford Pear trees in the neighborhood that are great boiling clouds of white and some other type of cherry trees that are paler than mine which are in full bloom. But I think it'll be another day before my front yard is a mass of cotton candy. Again, I'll photoblog it when it's right.
Oh, and by the way, today shows every indication of being exactly like yesterday. Life can be good.

Web Sites That Suck
I tried ordering my father, who lives in Florida, a subscription to MLB.TV and ended up being charged for the same service three times. He is a long-time St.Louis Cardinal fan and I thought it would be nice to let him see the games over the Internet on his computer. I tried the service first to see how it was and it passed my quick test. It was only after I tried to walk him through the setup on his home computer that I noticed I was getting charged for each and every attempt to get him on line. I then lost my patience and told him I would get him something else. To add insult to injury, I then spent 35 minutes on hold with the MLB.TV customer support number to cancel the service.

Please don't imagine that the latest technology is going to make your life or someone's any easier. It probably won't. It is the irony of our age. And again do not order anything from the Disney subsidiary ESPN. Their site is confusing and they will only fool you into ordering more than you need.

Still Busy
Sorry to not keep y'all up to date but great advances have been made on the home front and the weather in NoVa (Spanish for "it doesn't go") has flipped brutal in the last two days. Way too hot way too quick. We are expecting rain shortly which is the leading edge of a front coming through which will cool us down considerable and, speaking for the grossly overweight, we need that.
No cherry blossoms in front of the domicile yet. Pics will be posted when the profusion of pink masses its force in front.

A Bit Hasty
For those who missed the BlogDog, I'm here but I don't have anything worth your time to say. I watched the Tarheels win the NCAA Hoops Melee and congrats to the Lads from Chapel Hill and to Ol' Roy who finally has his championship. Illinois was the best team in the country through the course of the year as their long undefeated run amply demonstrated but Carolina, which often did not play like the team they are, turns out to be the most talented team in the long run.

Now if four or five of the UNC palyers will declare for the NBA draft, I will be even more happy with the results of the season.

We Are At War
With all due respect to Pope John Paul, let's not forget the United States is still at war in the Middle East. Today's attempt to free 3000 prisoners from an Iraqi prison should not go unnoticed. It is no coincidence Al Queda attacked while the world was mourning for Pope John Paul. Al Queda is so desperate for bodies they figure this was the best moment to free prisoners of war that might aid their misguided cause.

Pontifex Maximus John Paul II
Rest in Peace. Never has a Pope deserved the title above more. He made the Catholic Church a new force for freedom in the world. Despite priestly problems, Karol Wojtyla will be missed. I will miss him.