Pugs Of War Welcomes The Dog Days Of Summer
Today is a Fila Brasileiro - massive, courageous and obedient.
The pug would exchange butt-sniff greetings ... if there's a step-stool to be had.

Post Haste, Repent Leisure
I have been asked to "stop already" with the final post of the day. I am nothing if not responsive to the requests of readers. Thus yesterday's final post was my final final post post.

Pugs Of War Welcomes The Dog Days Of Summer
Today is a Pharaoh Hound - smart, playful, fast and a dog that blushes when excitied.
The pug would exchange butt-sniff greetings with a tightly curled and wagging tail at the meeting of a fellow play hound.

A Final Post For The Day

Sometimes "Pug" Is Spelled With An "I"
Wizbang Pop has a picture of Percy the miniature pig, chillin' in a deck chair.
So cute it'll make you diabetic just lookin' at it. But go ahead. You could use an "Awwww!" moment, couldn't you?

Stand Back! Hot Stuff!

My first jalapeno. I'm not sure that it's fully done but it hasn't been getting any bigger for the last week or so. I risked the pick. Even though it's in my hand for scale, the total length from the top of the stem curve to the bottom of the pepper is two inches.
This will be going in my eggs tomorrow at brekkies. Along with a tomato. Woot!

Pugs Of War Welcomes The Dog Days Of Summer
Today is a Pink - loud, annoying, little talented but surprisingly popular.
The pug would not exchange butt-sniff greetings as the pug has standards.

Pugs Of War Welcomes The Dog Days Of Summer
Today is an Otterhound - large, strong and dignified but with a secret desire to be a lapdog.
The pug would exchange butt-sniff greetings with great glee at finding a big ol' goofy brother under the skin.

A Final Post for The Day

Pugs Of War Welcomes The Dog Days Of Summer
Today is a Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever - strong, reliable, flashy and ready to jump into icy water at a moment's notice to lure a duck.
The pug would exchange butt-sniff greetings with great pleasure as long as there was not a great spray of icy cold water to contend with.

A Final Post For The Day

If You Can't Get Enough Christopher Walken
And I can't. The Census sketch. It's brilliant even if it was on Saturday Night Live.

A Bit Of Footy
Just an aside really. As it stands today, the Premiership Ladder reads thus: Adelaide, West Coast, Melbourne, St. Kilda, Collingwood and Sydney. Or, by team name: Crows, Eagles, Demons, Saints, Magpies and Swans. So we have a flock of birds interrupted by sinners and saints. Not a big deal but it amused me.
And, I just noticed that the second eight teams are lead by Geelong, Richmond and Brisbane respectively. Which would be the Cats, Tigers and Lions all bunched together.
The Hawthorn Hawks are the exception - the only bird named team standing third from the bottom.

Pugs Of War Welcomes The Dog Days Of Summer
Today is a Giant Schnauzer - high spirited, intelligent, loyal and just on the cute side of shaggy.
The pug would exchange butt-sniff greetings with a certain stretch-necked gravitas.

A Final Post For The Day

Relish
That's the name of the food tabloid that my noisepaper includes on some kind of regular schedule. I don't do much cooking (staying out the kitchen is a good thing for the morbidly obese) but I do like a leisurely stroll through the pages of the popular culture. So, in the interest of blog-clogging (posting more useless crap than is really necessary), here are the titles of some recipes in the latest issue: "Grilled Tomoatoes Marinated in Basil Vinaigrette," "Bell Peppers Lemonly Dressed and Cumin-esque," and "Lemony Chicken and Red Grape Salad."
All look rather tasty. and since I should have tomatoes and bell peppers aplenty to deal with, perhaps those first two might be pressed into service. If I do, I'll report on it.

Another Good Buy
Since I posted about the Vizio deal at Costco, I thought I might post about what looks like a hella deal at Amazon. A Cuisinart knife "block." 14 pieces in a stainless steel "block" that swings forward to allow the knives to be pulled. It's ostensible price was $285 and the sale price is $90. That's some discount! And not only that, Amazon is offering a $25 discount when you spend over $125 on Kitchen & Housewares or Bed & Bath so you could get some $35 item for, effectively, $10 more. Can't beat that with a stick.
I'm sorely tempted to get one of these even though I have a nice Sabatier knife block. But my knife block is an actual block and I've moved to stainless steel appliances. If you dig back on the blog, you'll see pics I posted of the range and microwave. Yeah - stainless steel. Also, my knife block is tall enough that I have to pull it forward from the backsplash to draw the longer knives. This one puts the steak knives at the top so when it tilts out, the shorter knives are there to draw against the cabinet bottom.
The customer reviews of the knives themselves are intriguing. I'm not sure what the knives are made of but I've always preferred non-stainless knives which the user can put a razor hone on even though those knives tend toward rust-ability. And these knives seem to be at a point along the continuum closer to my preference. My Sabatier knives are stainless and don't really take the edge I want them to have. Of course, I use the sharpening steel on them every time I pull one.
If I decide to go ahead and but one of these, I will post a review after use.
UPDATE: I couldn't resist. A knife block, a mandoline-type slicer and a stainless steel utensil holder with the promotion discount and super-saver shipping all for $110.

Today's Crop

Pugs Of War Welcomes The Dog Days Of Summer
Today is a Xoloitzcuintli - sensitive, smart and an aggressive defender.
The pug would initiate a butt-sniff greeting with open playfulness.

A Final Post For The Day

TVs These Days
I've been enjoying my big plasma TV (can I deduct it if I blog about it? ... rats) and found that the customer service of the maker (Vizio) was really very good when I had a problem with the first unit I bought. If you happen to be in the market for a new thin screen HDTV, Costco has a pretty good coupon deal coming up next week. A Vizio 42" LCD unit at $300 off for a price of $1,300. That compares with a recent Costco offer of a Phillips 42" LCD unit which had a $200 coupon off a $2,000 price. $500 less for a TV that isn't made by as famous a maker as Phillips but from my experience a reputable maker. Not bad at all.
Maybe I should ask Vizio to advertise on PoW.

Ummmm, OK
Headline on the "Outdoors" column in today's Washington Times sports section: "Keep an eye out for rabid Bobcats."
It almost goes without saying.

Farm Report
The plants are going through water like madness what with all the hothothot, nasty, ugly weather. I put one watering can into each of the pepper boxes and was schvitzing so bad I decided to do the tomato watering after I cooled down. Ick.
Took two smallish tomatoes with some damage each for my morning scrambled eggs. So good. I find these tomatoes to be quite sweet. Not a criticism of course! It looks like another half dozen or so are coming on line for pluckage in the next three or four days. And these are big ones. The largest yet. I'll take pictures when I pick them.
The jalapeno plants continue to set peppers passing well. I have to figure out what their proper size is so that I can pick 'em at the proper time. I'm investigating pickling so that I can pick a peck of pickled peppers. Heh.
I'm also a fan of pepper jelly so I hunted up a recipe online. It uses bell peppers too which is a bonus because the bell pepper plants are really starting to produce. And the initial pepper is puffing right up. It's a lovely shade of pale green now. Hmm. Better take a picture of that too.
Anyway, my apologies for my continuing obsession with my deck garden but it's new to me. Next season I'll be more restrained. Promise.

Pugs Of War Welcomes The Dog Days of Summer
Today is an Irish Wolfhound - shaggy, galloping and of great size.
The pug must use a step stool for the traditional butt-sniff exchange of greetings.

For The Real Music Lover

Can't decide whether to rock out or just be classical? Behold! The STRADocaster!

That's a combined Stradivarius and Stratocaster. Rock me Amadeus, fer sher, fer sher.

Call Me A Romantic
This month's music is "The Ultimate Collection" by The Carpenters. In the past, I have admitted my absolute slavish devotion to the incredible voice of Karen Carpenter yet I don't have any of their music in my collection. On CD that is. So, after listening recently to the kick-ass fuzz guitar solo on "Goodbye To Love," I decided that I had to have a good lolloping whack of their music for my next purchase. My troll through Amazon resulted in the above-mentioned multi-disc collection (link in the sidebar). It has a lot of the well-known stuff and it will probably obviate the need to buy more Carpenters for me.
My only hesitation is that with artists I like, I prefer to get all of their work even though I may not like all the songs on every disc. And having a collection like this makes my buying the individual CDs less likely. It's not a big hesitation.
Ah. Such is life. I'm deeply saddened by how much I didn't realize the magnitude of the loss when Karen died. I didn't realize how incredible her voice was and the world of music lost something that I can not ever see being replaced. It's also too bad that The Carpenters had such a frothy, bubble-gum reputation when they were writing and performing. It's enough to make a music lover cry.

And just as a by-the-by, do you own any Sara Evans? You don't? What's wrong with you? Ok, OK. I'm being obtuse. She is nominally a country singer but she is such a phenomenal talent that you are obliged to listen to at least two of her songs before you are allowed to ignore her. The songs are "Real Fine Place To Start" (the title track from her latest disc) and "Born To Fly" (the title track from her third CD). "Born To Fly" should have won the grammy for contry song of the year and would have, had it not run up against the juggernaut that was Dan Tyminski's "Man Of Constant Sorrow" from the "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" soundtrack.
The lady has the whole package: stunning good looks, great backup musicians, phenomenal voice and she's a conservative to boot. His friendship with her is proably the only thing I envy in Sean Hannity.

Moment Of Snark
Yesterday in the shade of towering poplar trees at the campground in Catoctin Mountain Park wherein I had set up the Atlantic Cycling rest stop, the question arose: "Why are they called 'rest rooms?'"
To which I replied, "Well, for George Michael, they're actually called 'arrest rooms.'"

Modern Times
I recently bought a new pair of everyday shoes to replace the ones I've had in heavy rotation for ... well, some time now. Something over a year I think. And as I'm putting the old pair into the box to donate, I was suprised to realize that the shoelaces were perfectly good. I remember when I'd have to replace shoelaces at least a couple of times before the shoes were worn out.
Perhaps I shouldn't use the term "worn out" as my old shoes actually still have a good amount of life left in them but are showing their age to the point that I need more support. For all the carping about planned obsolescence, I have not had to buy shoelaces for several years now. Some small things are getting better in this here modren world.

Farm Report
Today's visit to the deck was a cornucopia of delights. First, the horn worms are in exactly the same place I found them. Their immobility speaks to their moribund condition. Ha. Good. Then I watered the boxes (three full cans - six gallons!) and harvested 11 tomatoes. I tossed one to the passing meter reader and cooked two, which, sitting directly on the deck, had gone bad at the base. Made the tomato and scrambled eggs again. Love it! Next time I may do it more omlette-like. I'll have to dice the tomaht though.
The jalapeno plants are now starting to bristle with peppers. And I spotted the first actual green pepper. Woo hoo!
I'm already planning next year's plantings - some herbs, some onions, more tomatoes, more hot peppers. I think it'll be time to roll my own salsa.

Poll Results Just In
The favorite Mario powerup over at Slashdot is the Tanooki/Racoon Suit from Super Mario 3. Too bad they can't spell but the result is right.

On Events In The Mideast
UNFIL "peacekeepers" are killed when the Hezbos set up camp in their midst.
Blue helmets. Pfeh! Blew their helmets right off I'd say.
Too bad young men die on forgeign soil due to the feckless inattention of a corrupt bureaucracy in New York.
I don't think we can get the US out of the UN but perhaps we can start be getting the UN out of the US. Port au Prince has real estate at very attractive rates I'd imagine.

In The News
N'Sync member Lance Bass finally comes out of the closet.
Now shouldn't he have to change his name to Lance Blowfish?
Hey! He could join Darius Rucker and the boys as the Blowfish in Hootie and the Blowfish!
I'm full of good ideas today.

Getting Old
When I was much younger, I wore eyeglasses and contacts. When I was younger than that, I wore eyeglasses. When I was younger still, I didn't wear anything but ZZ Top's favorite: cheap sunglasses. It was after an eye infection while I was overseas in the summer after high school that I realized I couldn't see what I was sure I had seen clearly before. So, in my freshman year of university, I got checked and can still recall the doc saying "Oh yeah. You need glasses."
I suppose I could dig through all the pictures of my growing up and find most of the glasses I've ever worn. Plastic frames, mostly metal frames and finally the excellent titanium frames which were the last glasses I had before I got the wonderful LASIK surgery. But I really don't wish to revisit the history of my glasses. I got my eyes sliced because I, as a charter member of the Big Guy's Club, sweat at just about any outdoor activity. It would drive me buggy to be mowing the lawn and have to wipe my glasses every five minutes. Now, I can sweat with a certain impunity. Uck. That's pretty ugly. Forget I said it.
Not only that, I can indulge my foolish desire for way-too expensive sunglasses. My first pair of Oakley's (grey market from Costco!) made me an Oakley devotee almost immediately. I now own two pair of Oakleys that are in the regular mix, a new pair of Maui Jim polarized glasses (Lycurgus insists that polarized lenses are just the thing for boating in Florida), and a pair of Gargoyles that never really settled into the rotation. So now I can at least look cool on a portion of my face.
What does this have to do with getting old? Well, first, it's cruising the blogosphere. I find I pretty regularly have to bump up the text size on sites I read. It bothers me though it's probably not such a big deal but it seems a symptom. I recall going into the kitchen for breakfast at my parents' home and my father pointing out a rabbit on the lawn, I had to squint to see it which amused dad just a wee bit more than was really necessary. But I got a bit of my own back when he had to ask me to read stock listings in the agate type those pages use to get hundreds of listings into the minimum space. Ha. At least I could read those.
Could. I said "could." I can still read them but I need a pretty good source of light to do so. And one rough contemporary of mine who never needed glasses now needs to use reading glasses as a matter of course. I wish I could have those dew-fresh eyes that didn't need glasses for distance and could read itty-bitty type without batting (yes) an eyelid. But at least when I get all codgered-up, I will be wearing Oakley M-Frame Pros instead of the massive, over-glasses dark goggles that the retirees seem to have adopted as of today. Plant me in the ground with my Oakleys. Perhaps they'll help dim the flames of perdition.

Dee-lish
The tomato as pictured in my hand below no longer exists. It (fatbastard) GOT IN MAH BELLY! (/fatbastard) This morning I sliced it up, cooked it in a splash of olive oil until soft, then scrambled two eggs over it. Even to someone who doesn't eat a lot of tomato it was delicious. It had that sweetness tomato gets when cooked and I can see making many an omlette with my 'maders. Yum.

Aren't They Pretty?
A trio of tomatoes in various stages of done.
An antidote to the ugliness of nature, green in tooth and jaw, of the previous post.

Two For Hell
The pictures are of the last two worms, one on a tomato plant (right) and the other on a green pepper plant (left). I'm leaving them on the plants so that the Braconid wasp larvae (pupae?) have every chance to bring forth vast swarms of worm killing, wingéd friends.
Sorry for the poor photo quality. I was trying to zoom in and hold the stalks steady at the same time.

Quote Of The Day
This one comes from the estimable Joe Sherlock: "Mass transit - only good if you don't value your time."

OK, This Is Weird
Costco has a sleeper ottoman. Not a sleeper sofa. A sleeper ottoman. I'm not opposed to the idea particularly. It seems quite versatile - seating, sleeping, even a coffee tablish functionality. But it's a strange idea. Of course it doesn't help that it houses a "European" single size bed. I've seen those at IKEA. Tcha! Right. No wonder Americans win the tour de France. We can get a good night's sleep.

Wherein I Relinquish Anonymity
My letter to "Forbes" is online. It runs under the sub-hed "Fuel's Gold" which is, I must say, a rather clever use of language. I would have used it in my days as a letters editor at USNews.

Pretty, No?
My third snipped tomato. A friend dropepd by this morning and I looked at the leading two and realized that they really were far enough along to clip so I did and gave them to him. Then I looked at the gang of four and figured this one was far enough as well.
I will be slicing it and having it on a sandwich for dinner tonight.
Next year I think I'll get more Earthboxes and set one up with some gre't big beefsteak tomatoes just so I can have some that are worth braggin' on for size. I've heard that size matters. Or was that size 'maders?

I still don't have a great handle on taking closeups but here is the tomato. It's about an inch and a half around. That's my hand in there for scale.

The Post Where I Steal A Meme

From Kris over at "Anywhere But Here."
This post could also be titled "WTF?"

A tomato picture coming soon. As soon as I get the digicam to focus on the 'mader and not the background!

Today's Tour Brief
Congratulations to Floyd Landis whose excellent time trial puts him in position to win this year's Tour. He finished one minute, ten seconds behind Serhiy Honchar (Ukraine riding for T-Mobile) while the other of the top three who were in touch of the lead don't seem to be able to beat Landis's time. Given that the final day is considered a victory lap into and in Paris, Landis should be on the podium in yellow at the end. It was a stirring Tour with great and dramatic stages. There were startling individual efforts and, unfortunately, no superb team riding as when the USPS team lead Lance as the "Blue Train." But perhaps next year the tema time trial will return.
One thing is now clear: Honchar is a time trial stud hoss. He took both TTs this year, though Landis did have to swap bikes in the first and then only finished a minute behind. I think Honchar will be an interesting rider to watch in the future. I also hope Levi Leipheimer (USA riding for Gerolsteiner) has a Tour win in him in the next couple of years. But I wouldn't put hard money on it.
This has been a hell of a year for Landis. He won the Amgen Tour of California, the Paris-Nice race and the Ford Tour de Georgia. May he have a full recovery from his hip replacmeent surgery and return to the podium in races to come.
I am remiss in not putting up a link to Landis's home page.

A Saturday Groaner
I just met a beautiful woman named Anne. Anne S. Thesia. She's a knockout.

Boring You To DEATH With Posts About Tomatoes
I think that sums it up pretty well. Pictures will be posted tomorrow to back up my mad ramblings. Ramblings about water and color. Not watercolors. That's different.
I watered the Earthboxes today and happened to water the 'maters at a point where the sun allowed me to see down the fill tube. Yikes! The reservoir was dry. I was looking at the bottom of the box. I am putting well over a full watering can (I'll test the capacity so I can quantify it) per day into the tomato box and it is being sucked dry. I believe I'll give it a double dose of watering this afternoon.
And, the color of the initial six or seven is really coming on. I doubt there will be full on ripeness this weekend but I'm sure it will happen next week. Woot!

The Other Jake
When in Philly, I saw Jake Armerding play with Hawaiian-born ukelele player Jake Shimabukuro. Here is a video of Jake 2 playing "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" on the uke. There is no denying his talent. Take about five minutes to watch and listen. Really quality stuff.

More Odds 'n' Ends
First, there is definite color in the tomatoes. (happy dance). The initial four and the two others that have gotten the most sun are definitely yellowing. In most things "yellowing" is not good. In this case, it bodes well. Maybe another week to the first pluckings?
Second, I didn't do a Tour Brief yesterday as Floyd Landis cracked pretty badly on the second mountain stage and I thought he might be stick-a-fork-in-him done. Well, he might have cracked but he didn't break. He rode a hellacious final mountain stage today to win the stage and get to half a minute off the lead. He is in third place but with a fairly level road stage and an individual time trial left, he is in good position to ride for the win. Landis is a very good trial rider.
I'm really peeved that the Phonak team did a suck-rotten job of supporting Landis in yesterday's stage. If one of the other riders (Axel Merckx, I'm looking at you!) had gutted it out and sacrificed himself to tow Landis in the later parts of the stage, he would not have lost as much time as he did and he probably wouldn't have lost the maillot jaune. But he rode one of the "greatest escapes in modern Tour times" (quoting the OLN web page on today's stage) today. And he deserves praise for it.
It has been a great race this year.

I'm WAITing!
I looked back in the archives to see that my first post anouncing tomatoes was a month ago. A month! I should have some ripe topmatoes after a month, shouldn't I?
Well?
I think the leading two candidates for ripeness are still at least a week away. On the other hand, my two plants are groaning with globes. I have no doubt that there are well over 70 tomatoes on those plants. What surprises me is that I have clusters that set tomatoes some time ago that are developing new fruits on the stalks that didn't set initially. This is not normal tomato behavior that I remember from my yoot.

I Made A Suggestion
I was sitting here at my desk, strumming my "old" PRS Santana SE ("Carlito") when it struck me - might the Maryland lottery people be interested in putting up a Paul Reed Smith lottery? I e-mailed them the suggestion.
I'm not sure the PRS people would be interested in doing it but if they produced one really exceptional dragon guitar as the grand prize and then a few of the other excellent production models as lesser prizes, I think a lot of guitar players would buy into that lottery. Heck, I would and I'm just a casual player. Still, it would be cool if it happened because of my suggestion.

Another "Bloodzilla" Moment
Now there's a post head that needs an explanation. In the Simpson's episode "Worst Episode Ever," Bart and Milhouse take over running Comic Book Guy's store. As a customer is browsing, Bart says, "Ah nice to see ya. How about that Bloodzilla? (laughing) Vampire dinosaur? You can't make that stuff up."
So from that point on, anything that deserves the description "you can't make that stuff up" gets a "Bloodzilla" tag. And today's moment goes to a headline in the regional briefs as published in the Metro section of the Washington Times. I reproduce the the headline verbatim:

"Naked man hits car with stolen pigeon"

Honestly. You can't make that stuff up. Here's a link, scroll down to the Virginia/Suffolk "dateline."

Today's Tour Brief
Huzzah! Floyd Landis (USA riding for Phonak) is back in yellow! He has a ten second lead which he can probably expand for the next two mountain stages, especially if Phonak rides as well in support as they did today. I won't kid you- Phonak is not a USPS or Discovery with Lance riding ahead but it's a strong, motivated team that will, I think, pull Landis to the Tour win.
What shocks me is that Tom Boonen (Belgium riding for QuickStep) abandoned the race today. He was riding out of 106th place but he was sprinting wonderfully in the first few stages and seemed to be in the hunt for the green jersey. I guess the ascents were too much for him. Too bad.
It's also too bad that viewership of this year's Tour is down by something like 50% from Lance's final year last time around. It was historic and inspiring to watch Lance but this year's tour is, despite the favorites, very much wide open and hella exciting. I'm sorry more people aren't watching. It's more fun to watch than golf or baseball. In my opinion.

This, That And Some Of The Other Thing
But not so much of the other.
I heard from a friend today that his house was robbed while he was away for a few days and the visceral anger it brings me just doesn't go away. He called me later to say that what was stolen was not as extensive as he thought originally so I am calmer by degrees. But it's not what was taken that has me enraged. The Red Cloud of Blood descends when I think that my friend's sanctuary was defiled by some human turd drug addict who thinks his need to put junk in his body allows him to take from someone who's worked for what he has.
The area in which he lives is OK but it a bit too close to Ho-town for comfort. I hope he's able to move in the next few months.
It's times like this that I wish The Commonwealth would pass castle doctrine law as Florida has. I don't really have a problem with ending the ability to process oxygen of some low-life who thinks of my possessions as his source of income.
This was going to be about more things but I'm in just too foul a mood to go on about anything else.

Today In The TdF
Today is actually a rest day which the cyclists will need after a punishingly long (180.5 km) stage on Sunday. Add in the loss of two cyclists out of three who crashed in the six-man breakaway, and the drama factor of this year's race just keeps going up. I'm amazed that Mattias Kessler (German riding for T-Mobile) not only survived the crash but stayed in the race. He was riding last and David Canada (Spain riding for Saunier) just ahead of him lost his rear wheel and started on an agonizing spill (broken collarbone and a very bad case of road rash) that essentially blocked Kessler from moving right and getting away from the impact. Kessler went over the guardrail (as did Rik Verbrugghe who was leading the breakaway at that point and is out with a broken leg and probably some other injuries as well) but finished out the race with stones from the crash imbedded in his helmet.
Remarkable.
Tomorrow the peleton returns to finish the stage up L'Alpe d'Huez. This is a 13.8 km climb at an angle of 7.9%. That is hellish. This is a "hors categorie" (beyond classification) climb and is the second of the day. The prior HC climb is up Col d'Izoard but is easier for several reasons: it is about mid-way through the stage (Huez is where the race finishes), though it is actually longer by 700 meters, it is "only" a 7% grade. And this is one of those "gut check" moments of the tour. If a rider can crank out a win up this mountain, he will be worthy of the yellow jersey and he will make a statement to the rest of the entrants. It was on climbs like this that Lance Armstrong proved his greatness. I hope Floyd Landis (my favorite as I've said before) crushes this stage. But even if he doesn't he is still in good position to win the Tour. I'd just like to see him do it on the same slopes that a talented rider from Texas became a superstar who is recognized the world over by just his first name.

OK Then
Forbes printed my letter. Another 32 seconds off my 15 minutes. The issue is July 24 with Putin on the cover.

Songs of PRaiSe
Another eBay Paul Reed Smith worth a look. In this case another Hollowbody II in lush green. More than lush: fierce tiger-y striped green. As pretty an HB II as I've seen with birds and ebony tuners.Love that look. And the asking price starts at $2,200. If it's not bid up, that's a super bargain. Expect that several bids will flow in at the end of auction.
Hmm. Interesting. In continue to troll through the PRS listings on eBay, I see that there are several Hollwbody IIs up for auction currently. And most of them are pretty sweet. I wonder what's bringing out the HB IIs.

We Have Peppage!
Wow, that sounds almost like English. Maybe "pepperage" would be better. I found my first jalapeno on the plants today. It's tiny - about the size of the final joint on a baby's pinky finger (not a newborn, a home-from-hospital, looking-around-with-interest sort of baby). -snif- I'm so proud! Not only do I have tomato plants that are so laden with fruit I've given up trying to count 'em, I now have a baby pepper. Now if the regular green peppers will start producing, I'll be even happier.
By the way, if I had to guess how many tomatoes were on the plants, including those that are developing on stalks that already have fruits, I'd say I probably have well over 50. I think the Earthbox is a superb way to grow them. That and catching the brazzlefragging horn worms in time.

Backing Up
As in my hard drive. I'm not very diligent about it. I have a nice little USB 2.0 bus-powered 80 GB external hard drive to which I back up my iMac. And I'm doing that this am. I'm at 2 and a half hours and it's not done with files yet. That seems too, too long. I really should get a massive firewire drive to do regular back-ups but I don't like monopolizing another great hunk of desktop real estate and I also like the convenience of a bus-powered drive. Even if it is slower.
My hard rive could actually not back to the drive if I didn't have a script to exclude iTunes and iTunes files. I've got just short of 20 GB in iTunes as it stands and I really don't think it's necessary to back them to the spare drive. I have all those files on my main iPod anyway.
And the final note. How do you know when you did your last back-up? I slap a date label on my drive so I know. My last back up was in February. That's not nearly often enough. How do you back up?
UPDATE: Done and done in 2 hours 47 minutes and change. Not too bad really.

As War Rages
I diddle with details. First, I just couldn't the formatting right on the post below which means I'll re-post it this weekend but without the distracting size changes. My apologies.

And the other one: Voted Best Time Sink Evar! - coverage of the Tour de France on the Outdoor Life Network (OLN) Now that I have DirecTV, I get to watch live coverage of the TdF and it's insanely great. To watch breakaways run out ahead of the peleton, then to watch the peleton reel the breakaways back in, to see the sprinters scramble over the finish and even to watch a team rider tow a rider back up to the peleton is just fantastic. I can't even describe how beautiful it is to watch the brilliantly-colored mass of 170 or so riders streaming through the compact streets of an ancient town or through the wider roads of the lovely French countryside.
Today's Stage 12 was won by Yaroslav Popovych a Ukrainian who rides for the American Discovery Channel (which is the offspring of the USPS team which Lance fronted for most of his tour wins) team. Popovych rode a brilliant endgame (riding four attacks at a solo breakaway before taking it on the fourth) to win and give Discovery a much-needed shot in the arm. Johan Bruyneel is the superb tactician for Discovery and the man who managed Lance's amazing Tour career. I think he has a few tricks up his sleeve this year yet.
On the other hand, the T-Mobile team has been staggering. First in losing Jan Ullrich before the start of the Tour to doping accusations and then staggering in racing the hell out of the early stages. At one point there were (as I recall) four T-Mobile riders in the top ten riders. I sincerely hope that Ullrich can clear the doping charges as he has been second in the TdF more times than is easy to deal with. A Tour win for Jan would be a karmic good thing. But obviously not this year.
So who's on top? I haven't found the overall standings after today's stage but goofy-looking American Floyd Landis who rides for the Phonak team has taken the yellow jersey and has a serious chance to win it all. He is my sentimental favorite because he is going to have hip replacement surgery after the Tour.
UPDATE: Floyd is still in yellow. Excellent! and here is a great page for the layout of today's stage with a map and an elevation diagram.
Yikes! In watching the coverage I totally missed the fact that Discovery lost two team members today. This makes a team win virtually impossible. I'll have to watch the extended coverage tonight to see what happened to them. I did watch Team CSC's American rider Bobby Julich's crash in the individual time trial. Scary. Not quite as horrifying as Joseba Beloki's crash a couple of years ago but horrifying nonetheless.

The Early Riser Strategy
I am turning over this post to my very good friend who will remain anonymous but has a government job that requires that he get up very early in the morning. Insanely early in my world but he has been doing it, and doing it right for some time now. He told me that he'd learned a few things about getting up early and I asked him if he'd mind writing them up for me so that I might post them. He was kind enough to oblige. Thus, the following:

No one likes to get out of bed in the wee hours of the morning. As one who has to rise early, I find that these few things help me immensely, and there are no side effects! (e.g. yawning for hours, blurry vision, intense craving for more sleep)

Place your alarm clock across the room away from your bed. You will have to get out of bed to turn it off.

Turn your alarm clock so that you cannot see the time. If you wake up in the middle of your sleep session you will not know what time it is. This is beneficial because if you are trying to sleep, why do you need to know what time it is?
The only thing you need to know is that it is not time to get up. This knowledge will empower you to go back to sleep knowing that your alarm is set and it is not time to get up because the alarm clock did not go off.

Should you find yourself staying up later than usual but you still have to rise at the appointed hour, divest yourself of your watch and do not look at the clock. You do not need to know how much sleep you did not get but only that the sleep you get will be enough. Clock watching is only torture. Why remind yourself that you are up past your bedtime?

Do not watch the late news. Everything that happened before you went to sleep and after you went to sleep will be broadcast bright and early the next morning, regardless of when you went to sleep or when you wake up.

Under no circumstances should you hit the snooze button. Doesn't it make more sense to set the alarm clock for the absolute last minute that you have to be up? Think of this as a sleep premium because you are maximizing the amount of time that you can remain in bed.

Finally, make your morning coffee stronger than usual. Why go for two or three cups when one good strong dose of caffeine is all you really need. Think about the time (or money) saved by reducing your caffeine intake and the subsequent trips to the bathroom.

And there you have it. A good compact shot of wisdom across your sleepy head. And mine.

New On The Blogroll
We all have those good friends we've never met. I'm now adding my good friend IML8 to the blogroll. She blogs on Livejournal and carves out her corner of cyberspace under the heading od "And Another Thing...."
She and her family are all objects of great envy for me as they've had a pug (Petey) for a while now and they've just added another charming lad by the name of Dewey to the family. Click on over and enjoy some pug pics that'll leave you all puddle-fied and melty.
Many moons ago I was a regular poster on a usenet forum for a local radio show as was she and we struck up an online friendship that ended up falling by the wayside. But we caught up after the advent of pugs and I thought she deserves a place on the PoW 'roll. I admire her honesty and great sense of humor. And I salute Mr. L8 for his being an admirable husband to a tough (and I mean that for her perseverance and pluck) lady. And no, I haven't met him yet. But then, I haven't actually met her either.

Hipness
My friend Michael is just too hip for regular life. I was looking at the crossword puzzle he was doing in the Philly paper and the clue was "___-mo." Being the knowledgeable and aware person he is, his answer was "KEB." Unfortunately, the Xword puzzle writer was not nearly so hip. The answer he wanted was "SLO."
It amused me.

More PRS on eBay
I feel like I'm stealing a bit from Billy Beck and his "AxeBites" but every now and again I see something on eBay 's Paul Reed Smith listings that strikes me. This time, it's another Swamp Ash Special, striking in glossy black with a flame maple neck and bird inlays. I prefer the translucent colors or the natural finish on the SAS because the grain of the wood is just gorgeous. But the glossy black body with the light maple neck is a pretty combination. If it had ebony tuners, it would be a touch hotter still. The auction is started off at $1,500 with no reserve. I don't know what the seller hopes for but I wouldn't pay any more than the starting price for a used SAS, even in superb condition. My Julie was a straight up $1,400 and I think she's more beautiful than this one.
But, you know, I could be convinced about this one were I not already an owner. I'm not a gitbox hero but of my three PRSes, I like playing the Swamp Ash Special the best. I'm sure this one plays equally well.

Just Too Cool
And beautiful. The Angel Decoy as shown on a 15 second YouTube vid.

Home Again
Back from my trip to Philly and the wonderful hospitality of the Philly boys. The two Jakes' show was very good but Jake Armerding was, as noted in a previous comment, kind of low energy. Great music of course but he seemed about 4/5ths speed for some reason. The other Jake, Jake Shimabukuro, was interesting to hear. He plays ukelele and makes it sound like a Spanish classical guitar. But he over emotes while playing and he obscures the song in his virtuosity. He played Return to Forever's "Spain" and it was a minute and a half before I realized what he was playing. But he had an enthusiastic following in the crowd which is nice. The two Jakes got together for a jam at the end of the show with Jake A on fiddle, Jake S on the uke and Jake A's standing bass player along for the trip. For three people who've never palyed a note together, their jam went pretty darn well.
Plus, I got in a trip to the Big 'n' Tall shop in Philly that handles a whole raft of pro atheletes os it carries some nice stuff. I now have a nice new mercerized cotton T shirt, a couple of polo shirts (one a real Polo polo) and for the first time a Polo button down oxford long-sleeved shirt. In pink. It's quite handsome.
I'll post more later because now I have to catch up on such mundane things as the newspapers, water the plants (!) and the like.

The Ol' Odds 'n' Ends Post
Lycurgus sent me Brad Paisley's "Time Well Wasted" CD. Whoa boy! Knockout. Funny as all get-out, the man can play the hell out of a guitar (even if he's a Telecaster guy - not every one prefers the PRS) and, well, it's just a great album. Great. Not just good - great. I can understand if country is not your taste that you wouldn't want to spend the $$ on it but you should still give it a listen anyway. I promise there's something you'll like.
That said, what's the new music for the month? This is an undecided month. Emm is accepting pre-orders for her next disc "The Summer of High Hopes." If you get in early enough, you get a signed copy plus a special disc of the songs from her major label disc "Public" which she's re-recorded to suit her taste now (interesting! I really want to see what she's done because "Public" is a fantastic disc). It's called "PVT" ("Private") in contradistinction. I hope she tours into the US before too long as I was not well when last she came through and I need to get an autograph to complete my collection.
If you visit the Emm link, you'll see that she has done a Flash re-design of her site. It's pretty in a sort of fairy-goth, delicate way. At least it doesn't keep you waiting for enormous splash animations. And if you click the "Listen" button, you get to hear songs from her discs on a very retro radio interface. I like it. Not that I need to listen online as I have very nearly every disc she's ever released.
Which begs the question of this month per se. I'll go with Brad Paisley and the prospect of Emm's disc as my discs for the month.

I take full credit for the brilliant estimation of the value of the Paul Reed Smith Hollowbody II in the the post of June 27. I said, "Any price below about $3000 is a good buy for this beauty." Ha. It sold for $2,950. And it was a good buy provided it was in the condition advertised. My Julie Ocean (Paul Reed Smith Swamp Ash Special) is in the hands of my friend Bill who will clean her, tune her and leave her ringing like the belle she is. He gets to play with an SAS which is one version of PRS he does not own.
I'll practice on the original Santana SE for a while.
I did, howver, make a mistake on the designation of the Hollowbody II. The "II" doesn't mean that the top and back are both necessarily "10 top" flame maple wood but that the top and the back are of matched quality. Thus a II with a 10 top will have a 10-quality back. A II with an artist-grade 10 top (even better than a regular 10) will have an artist-grade 10 back. But those are rare and pricey. The regular II will be made of good figured maple, matched in quality on the front and back.

I said I'd take pics of the horn worms giving up their juice for the wasp babies but I just ran out of steam on that one. Since then, the jar was outside and has been rained in considerable. I have to check to see if the rain water has done in the wasp pupae. I hope not.
And, finally, no posting for the next few days as I'm off to Philly to see Jake.

Some Splainin' To Do
Right now, the two Netflix on desk are "Blue Velvet" and "A Clockwork Orange." Does this say something about me or about Netflix? And why can't movies this weird have lady vampires? I think each movie would be better with at least one lady vampire. Maybe two. Wow. Two lady vampires. What a movie that would be (taptaptap - pondering)....

It's Over When I Say It's Over
I recall reading, not but a few days ago, or possibly hearing since I can suck news from all sorts of different media (talented I am), that Osama Bin Laden wanted Zarqawi's body for burial. OK. That works. Just tell us where to send the body.

Three Cheers For The Red, White And Blue!
Happy Independence Day to one and all - those who enjoy the blessings of freedom and those who will in the coming years due to the gallant and noble sacrifices that Americans have made for decades.
Long live the Revolution! Long live the United States!

And in this post's gratuitous section: I watched "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" on some cable channel last night. It had the requisite number of splogiums and gimcracks for a dick flick but what makes it a must see is, of course, a lady vampire. I think every movie should have one.

My Favorite Tomato Horn Worm
Sorry for the blur in the photo. My old skool digital camera is not all that good for close-up work. I'd like to thank the Braconid wasp for doing the heavy lifting on this one.
Check out this post at Fragments From Floyd for another look and a better explanantion (better - heck, an explanation period) of how the tomato plant deals with the horn worms.
My new friend here is unable to crawl out of the jar he's in and I aim to watch the wasp larvae do their thing. Knock yourselves out, lads. And then go out into the world to spread joy amongst all who would grow the tomato.
I see that I am actually dealing with a tobacco horn worm as the tomato horn worm, per se, has a blue-black horn and all mine have had red horns. Not that it matters as the only thing I have that they want is tomato plants. By the way, do visit the link as there is an insane comment from a "susan" who wants "share" the plant foliage which she doesn't eat. Oh fer hippieness! I could forgive it if she were a lady vampire.
UPDATE: I found one more THW avec pupae. Heh. That brings the total to 17 and now I'm almost sorry I didn't leave more for the wasps. Actually, the second one I found (they're much easier to spot when bristling with white cocoons) was bigger than the one i photographed. I left them both out on the deck in a jar. I'll take more pictures tomorrow. This is getting to be fun.

Take The Weekend Off
I'm going to.
Besides, I feel awful today. Nothing serious, not even a big deal, just blah-ed out to a fare-thee-well. If I perk up, I'll put another 'mader pic. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll go water the plants and double check for the little hornéd beasts.
And Happy Fourth to one and all! FREEDOM!

Froots!
This pic shows the Red Lightning tomatoes as they are developing. The size of these, the first four that set, is about an inch to an inch and a half in diameter. They grow to 2.5 to 3 inches so there's a fair amount of growing to do.
I love the stripedness even in the green form. Pretty. I hope I can tolerate the taste. If not, a lot of friends will be getting fresh 'maders.
This pic was taken today at about 3pm, if that matters.

Die Harder
Today's horn worm death count: two. Two big, fat bastards, grown thick on the fruit of my labor. The picture includes one deck board to show just how big this son of a moth got.
I've also taken pics of the as-yet green fruits and the denuding of plant branches that these little ... OK, I'll get away from the profanity ... green monsters have done. This makes 15 horn worms I've taken off two plants. Every got dam horn worm in the neighborhood must have been drawn to my deck.
My hate burns with a white heat. If I could find a final solution for these effers, I'd do it in a heartbeat. Worm murderer - you bet!
More pics later.

Fargin Horn Worms!
Found and sent three more of the little bastages to join their brothers in HELL!

YA Paul Reed Smith
No, no, no! I haven't bought another. But if anyone would like to join me in PRS madness, here is an absolute beauty. Hollowbody II with no year of manufacture (though the first number in the serial number appears to be a 9 which would date it to 1999), in amber (same as mine) but with the piezo pickup. Not only that, the starting bid is less than I paid for mine without the piezo. Any price below about $3000 is a good buy for this beauty.
I've seen some PRS Hollowbodies on eBay that list as "II"s but don't have the "10 top" back that identifies a real HB II. Caveat emptor as always. Your mileage may vary.

Naming Names
The media came up with the tag "Bennifer" for Bena Fleck and Jennifer Lopez quite a while back. And it made sense since "Ben" fits rather easily into "Jennifer." But that neologism led, in my estimation, to the horrid concatenation of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie that is currently being used: "Brangelina." Bzzzt! Wrong! However, if all celebrity couples are going to have their names jammed together, I think we should move next to Madonna and her husband Guy Ritchie. And their names work both ways: :"Madguy" for him and "Guymad" for the trollop he married. Le mot juste!

I Was Going To Post About Something...
What was it? What was it? Something about ... oh yeah. This.
Though in my family we usually called it "What's-iz-name's Disease."

Son Of A BITCH!
Sorry. I have pretty much eschewed such language on the blog but I'm so pissed! I found ten tomato horn worms on my two plants today. Ten! Five per plant! Where in the ever-loving blue heaven did these little SOBs come from? Needless to say I tore each one apart before checking further on the plants. And I probably wouldn't have found them for another couple of days were I not out planting the last of the pepper sprouts into the place of the one pepper plant I wounded too deeply in planting.
That and seeing what I thought was a wasp (crunch!) and now realize was probably one of those that lays its eggs in the horn worm. Sorry wasp. I thank you for the work you do but please get it done a little faster.

We Have Lost A Friend
Rob "Acidman" Smith has passed away. I feel lucky to have met him and been included in the blogroll of bloggers he had met and even gotten a link or two from him. If there's any consolation in his passing, it's that he out of pain and no longer subject to the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.
Damn. Just damn.

Pugz In Da Hood
I got this link from two spearate people. Gizmo the pug shows off his lapper flapper. How cute is that?

I Apologize
But It looks like I'll be working the phrase "lady vampire" into every post for the foreseeable future. Keeping in mind that the "foreseeable future" extends all the way to the end of this post.

Thanks For Nothing
I will admit that I read the Dear Abby column in the morning. It's nice to know that other people have screwed up their lives more thoroughly and completely than I have my own. But today's second letter really bears comment:

"Dear Abby, I believe my husband is headed for a nervous breakdown, and I don't know what to do. He is having a midlife crisis. His hair is thinning very quickly and he's having a problem sexually. (probably lusting after a "lady vampire" -Ed.) Things have gotten so bad that I'm contemplating filing for divorce.
Can you please tell him that he is not alone and that many men his age experience the same problems? Please tell him there is help. (signed) Desperate in Pittsburgh"

Dear Desperate, You want him know he is not alone and you're thinking about getting a divorce? Listen bitch - if you actually want him to think he's not alone, try staying with him. Why do you mention the thinning hair before the sexual problem? Could it be that you are so got dam superficial that his looks matter more to you than intimate relations? Maybe his problem is that you've conveyed your repulsion at his thinning hair and he's upset that he's no longer desirable.
And Ed, shut UP!
Luckily for the ol' BlogDog, he has a luxuriant head of hair and doesn't live in Pittsburgh.

Big Weather
Last night I had the fresh experience of losing my DirecTV feed as a thunder storm rolled in about 10:30 or so. I thought I might be peeved but I found that I actually got more pure enjoyment out of the storm than watching any TV. It was a thunder puncher. I don't recall ever seeing more lightning strikes in the period of about an hour. I love big weather. It's genetic. I got it from my momma.
UPDATE: My thanks to the Enigmatic Misanthrope for his comment. And this by-the-by update is to mention that the Misanthrope family has two absolutely wonderful Maine Coon kitties and a third which is not as personable (nothing wrong with that) that is, I want to say, a Himalayan. He'll correct me if I'm wrong. Now. PoW is dog-oriented but we appreciate cats as well and send out a saLUTE! the Misanthrope felines.

Underworld Evolution
This is a very bad movie. It made want to have sex with a lady vampire. That can't be good.

If I Could Do Animations
I'd do up a cartoon with Pennsylvania's most famous feeb John Murtha as a tiny blue critter called "Papa Murth." Papa Murth! Papa Murth! Gargamel is coming!" "Run my little Murths! Run like the wind!" Nancy Pelosi can be Murthette.

The Setup Is Done
I finished putting together the final Earthbox today. Six jalapeno pepper plants (already blooming! yikes!) and two more green pepper sprouts making a total of ten green plants. The sole remaining thing to do is jab the "Ultomato" cages into the first box. The tomato plants are now taller than my deck railing, keeping in mind that they're growing out of a box with a soil level about a foot above the top of the deck proper.
Pictures of the set in another day or so.
The really weird thing is that I woke this morning with the smell of the tomato plants in my olofactory. That's some kind of weird scent memory because there's no way I could have carried the scent in with me. (shrugs) Go figure. (ahhhnuld) It's NOT a toomah!(/ahhhnuld)

There Are Goats On The Blog
If you scroll back several days, you'll see a picture of my wonderful cousin's goats. I said I'd update the post with their names but I've let enough time pass that merely updating the post would be missed. So let me get the information into a post that, sadly, doesn't feature a picture. Their names are Tippy, Tulip and Tinkerbell. My cousin allowed a young relative to name them and I think she did a good job. The naming of goats is always dicey.
When I was young, Lycurgus and I "had" goats. The family had two neutered males (billy goats flat out stink unless they're neutered) which were pressed into service gnawing down the luxuriant undergrowth in the woods around the house. I was visiting the people who had the pregnant nanny on the day "my" goat was born. I didn't see the actual birth but I was the first to spot that the birth had happened. Kinda gross but I was a boy child so gross was all right with me. Since I was there, I got naming rights and after he was weaned and snipped, "Billy the Kid" (I was clever even then, wasn't I?) became a member of the family.
Brother Lycurgus had some connection to the arrival of "his" goat but memory fails me as to what it was. In any event, his naming rights produced "Rodney." But say that "R-ah-ah-ah-dney" with a good bleat and you have the name as it was destined to be.
Something I found interesting later in life was that these goats were large. They were easily two and a half feet tall at the shoulder, wonderfully white and had serious horns. At some point, I will dig up a pic of the lads, scan it and post it but for now, take my word for it - these guys could cause some damage with those head scimitars if they wanted to. But brother and I were absolutely and totally in control. They knew from the start that we were their masters. My sister ... who will be called Andromeda on the blog for the nonce ... never established any kind of control over them and had huge trouble wrangling them. Such is the Tao of Ungulates.
My cousin's goats are of a smaller variety. And they are there for the milk. But I'll let her tell their story as it stands:

I have started separating the mother and kids at night so I can get the morning milk. Today I am making cheese for the first time since last Thanksgiving. It will be nice to have it again. Queenie is still getting used to being milked, so it is not as peaceful as I would like but we are making progress every day.

And so it goes. She makes fantastic chèvre.

Category: Woot!
I counted seven little green globes on the 'mader plants after watering them this afternoon. Yay! As I've said before, for someone who's not that fond of tomatoes, I'm remarkably happy about these little fruits.
Also, the green pepper plants are definitely starting to grow. One seems to have taken a hit to the stem which may doom it (and the fault would have to be mine in the transplantation) but the sprouts haven't given up the ghost so I can probably replace it. It's been hot and dry here of late and the two Earthboxen sucked up an entire (2 gallon I think) watering can full of delicious dihydrogen oxide.
The jalapeno plants are still inside (one has flowered already!) but I've got the final box staged to be set up this afternoon when the sun is more obliquely angular. And two of the green pepper plants will go in that box as well meaning I'll only have one plant left over. Hmmm. Maybe I'll chunk it in the ground and see if it'll do it's thing even though it's not in a box.
UPDATE: Upon closer inspection, I have NINE little green globes on the tomato plants. Said closer inspection made as I set up the third box. The box is not done but it will be in the morning. (foolish grin) Jalapeno peppers!

In A Year Chock Full Of Cringe-Inducing Moments
Connie Chung manages to make all others fade into insignificance. MadTV regularly shows a very cringe-y parody of Connie and Maury but this little number (2:48 worth of YouTube video) manages to out-do the parody by Secretariat-like margins.
UPDATE: I knew a good thing (Good thing? -Ed.) when I found it. El Rushbo played the audio on the three-hour tour today. My question is does Connie understand what she's done? Because she sure didn't understand what she was doing.

Brand New Week
I haven't put any effort into blogging this weekend as it was annoyingly hot here in NoVa and I was disgruntled. I am in need of a regruntling. I think a road trip is in order. Let's see what's on the slate ... Atlantic Cycling ride this Sunday in beautiful Davidsonville, MD (oh boy - need to get all the supplies in order for that!) ... Jake is going to be in Philly on July 7 (will the Philly boys put me up for a couple of nights? very likely) ... Mike Cross is next on the Mike Cross slate on September in Georgia so that's far enough forward to delay thinking about for now ... Hmm. I think I'm going to go somewhere I've never been before in late July just for the heck of it. But I'm saying where or when. Ha! BlogDog - Interrational Man of Mystery.

I Don't Usually Link To Such Things
But here is a page of Catherine Bell who is just one of the finest women the world has ever produced. If she weren't a Scientologist, she may have been actually perfect. And this coming from one who considers Isabella Rosellini to be ... what's the word? transcendent. Yes. Transcendent. Can anyone name the one degree of separation between the two?

I Dunno
My latest flick from Netflix is the John Cusack classic "Better Off Dead." Well, "classic" may be a bit much. But what creeps me out is the title of the disc on my Mac desktop: "BOFFDEAD." Boff dead. Was this named by a necrophiliac? Yeek!

Absolutely Brilliant Animation
I watched this three times in succession and laughed just as hard each time. Animator v. Animation.
(Hat tip: Brian Tiemann at Peeve Farm.)

Stupid Advertiser Tricks
Local (DC area) businesses seem to have an inclination to gin up advertising "spokespeople" with invented names. A car dealer has a guy called "Mark Down." A furniture dealer had a woman called "Lois Price."
Needless to say, one of these name planted itself in my febrile fertile mind. For a car dealership: Lisa Ford. Or Lisa Honda. Or ... you get the idea.

Hell's Kitchen
I spent a quite enjoyable two hours watching Gordon Ramsay perform his magic. Truly excellent ranting and bitch-slapping by a fellow Scot. It continues to amaze me that the people who go out for HK don't seem to get that they're going to have to work their asses off and think while they're doing it. The women's team has one huge advantage: Heather. She's smart, she has organizational skills and she shows that she "gets it" more than anyone else in the competition. I think it just might come down to two women in the final two and my early money is on Heather.

Something New From the Lefties At Google
As long as I'm not paying them anything, I don't have a problem with using their products. Even though I'm already gut-sick of their facilitating Chinese communism and cleansing their "news" aggregation of right-leaning sites.
Still, Google Earth - use it frequently. Great app. And now - SketchUp. A 3D app. A free 3D app. Like Butterfly McQueen, I "don' know nothin' 'bout birthin'" 3D models. But I get to learn at a very low cost. Even if I never use it, the price was right.
UPDATE: Billy Beck has already blogged this a month ago. He liked it. And he knows 3D. Cool. I'm going to have spend more time playing with this.

Doggy, Doggy, Ever So Bloggy
How does your garden grow? Ha. I get all poetical when doing an update on the boxes of garden I have on my deck. That's right, I said "boxes." I finally got eight of the green pepper sprouts into the second Earthbox this weekend which leaves me with four more sprouts still. But it hardly seems worth cranking up another box for a half-load of peppers. Especially when I expect that the crop I get off the first box to be pa-lenty for my needs.
And the tomato plants are not being neglected either. Brother Lycurgus told me that he used, and had great success with, "Ultomato" plastic plant cages. Having never, to the best of my recollection, been steered wrong by BL, I set out to acquire them and found them here. I will point out that this was after finding my local Lowe's did not carry them. Supposedly Home Depot does but I'm so down on HD's sucky service that I make it a point to avoid going there. What's left? Yahhh - online ordering. As a Guiness scientist would say, "Brilliant!"
Being still left with an open Earthbox, I decided to see what plants Gardenharvestsupply.com (damn that's a long name!) was offering. I ended up finding a pack of six jalapeno pepper plants at 95¢ each. So I can still use the two best remaining green pepper sprouts and diversify, albeit in the pepper family, my "crop." Heh. My crop. I like the sound of that. I'll post more pix when I've got all three boxes up and running.
UPDATE: According to my e-mail, my order has been shipped slightly less than one hour after I got an e-mail confirmation of my order. That's pretty impressive!
Also, I looked at the list of dealers on the Earthbox page and there's nothing in the Washington metro area. This area would be, I think, a great market for them. There are vast quantities of people, I don't know how many townhouses with decks and I believe the desire for fresh veg, combined with the ease of growth should Earthboxes a big seller around. Heck, I bought three of 'em. I may have to suggest this to friends of mine who work at a garden center.

Guit-Steel
Lycurgus put me onto Junior Brown's "Surf Medley" (Pipeline/Walk Don't Run/Secret Agent Man) which I had never heard before. Yeee hah! Talk about your rockin' good times! I'm not sure if he's bending notes in "Secret Agent Man" or using his special "Guit-Steel" instrument of which I will steal a description from Amazon: "a combination of Telecaster guitar and a tabletop steel guitar." But it doesn't matter. Just exceedingly way cool. That's right. I said "exceedingly way cool."

My Letter To "Forbes"
The following is what I sent to Forbes magazine in regard to their excellent cover story on ethanol production as a "replacement" for gasoline and the serious problems therein. I was struck by a particular thing in the article:

Sirs:
In reading your June 5 issue's article on ethanol, I was struck by something that may require an addition to your magazine's glossary. You refer to Vinod Khosla as a "famous (and wealthy) venture capitalist." Yet in the next paragraph you describe his efforts to "tax oil production in (California) and use the proceeds to develop alternative energy resources" in which he is investing "in a handful of ventures." Moreover, he is "all over Washington trying to drum up support." It sounds like he's trying to install a tap on taxpayer dollars to feed into businesses in which he invests. This is not "venture capitalism." This is "venture socialism." Perhaps you might consider using such a term in the future.

I really feel that the idea of modern American so-called "capitalists" who try to re-rig the system so that they can not fail even if their investment is a dog aer deserving of more scorn than I can pour in a letter to the editor. Besides, having once been a letters-to-the-editor editor for a major weekly magazine, I know that a measure temeprance and brevity are assets.
So for my friends in the blogosphere, I give you what I wrote to the esteemed editors at my favorite finance and lifestyle magazine. Heck, I'm sorry that I never got the chance to vote for Steve Forbes for President. He is hurt in the beauty pageant by having kind of a goofy look but his platform made more sense than any candidate since Ronaldus Magnus. And, if they deem to print my letter, I can no longer hide behind my carefully-cultivated screen of anonymity.
BlogDog out. Possibly literally.

iTunes Idiocy
That'd be on my part, not iTunes's part. Hmm. "iTunes's" Sounds like the cat who could drive a car. But I digress. Sometimes I get an undomesticated rabbit atop my donkey (a wild hare up my ass) to listen to an artist exclusively to the point where I've listened to all the songs the same number of times. Not easy to do when one usually lets the "shuffle" feature select the music. But I've been wanting Jake Armerding's new CD (delayed unfortunately) so I've been cycling through the two extant albums on my Jake playlist. What I forget is that when I plug in one of my iPods, it updates the play count so that when I had one song played 20 times, three songs played 19 times and several played 16 times and all the rest played 14 times, I now have one song played 22 times, two played 20 times, two played 19 times, 12 played 16 times and seven played 14 times. D'oh! Idiocy. I'll never listen to two discs nearly eight times through in succession. Even if it is Jake I'm listening to.

Lack Of Posting
Will continue for the time being. Sorry.

New Kids On The Block
Meet the Good Friday Triplets of rural New Jersey. I neglected to get their names but I will and I'll update the post with them. But until you get to meet them by name, just bask in the goaty cuteness.
So sweet. All small animals are cute.
Even little humans.