More with the swingset

After we got it finished, Molly went down the slide. As Molly was 8.75 months pregnant at the time, this was quite amusing indeed. Somehow, the "ta-dah" at the end reminds me of Howard Dean's "I Have A Scream" speech.


Quicktime 6 is required to view the movie.

New blog template

I was getting bored with the old template. Hope you like the new one. Thanks to Blogger for offering a variety of new template options from time to time...

Swingset for Laurel

My project this weekend was building a swingset for Laurel. We purchased a Rainbow Play Systems swingset from Costco - which meant that it cost about half what it would have cost to buy it from Rainbow directly. And I, along with some helpers, got the whole thing put together.

We know two other couples with the same swingset, so we had a pretty good idea of how it would fit in the yard and what it would look like upon completion. Molly noted that, although we were the last of the three to get one, we were the first to actually complete the installation - the other two couples haven't yet entirely finished.

Here's a movie of part of the construction, a half-hearted attempt at time-lapse photography with a digicam, and then cleaned up in iPhoto. Unfortunately, the camera did get moved at a couple points, so it's not perfect. It was still fun.

New Jersey Governer resigns over improper appointment

Why aren't any of the headlines about the resignation of Gov. McGreevey stating the fact that he's resigning over a harassment charge and having appointed his lover to a position for which the lover was unqualified? He owes his wife an explanation about the affair and the fact that he's gay, but that's hardly cause for resigning these days (look at Clinton, for instance). The fact that he's gay is incidental to the whole matter, and has nothing to do with his ability or inability to govern.

But you wouldn't know that unless you actually bother to dig into the story. If you only read the headlines, you'd think he was resigning because he's gay. Not the case. In fact, in his resignation speech, he stated that he was gay, but made no motions towards apologizing for that. Which is good, because the only people to whom he owes an apology are his wife and daughter.

DOOM Denied

I tried to install DOOM3 twice, but it just wouldn't take. My win xp box has been acting flakey for a couple months now, and with the advent of XP SP2, it seemed like an auspicious time to nuke the dell and reinstall. A mere 6 hours later, we're just about done, and I'm now installing Doom3 again. This time, I hope it'll work...

Hot time in the old town tonight

The weather in this area of Minnesota has been unseasonably cool - we had a low in the mid 40s a couple days ago, and right now it's around 70. Which is actually quite pleasant; I prefer it cold. However, my body has decided to make up the difference, and I'm running a fever of 102.5.

I tried to get some work done today, but didn't get very far. I've had some chicken soup, and that's helping. So now, there's only one thing to do. There's really only one thing you can do in a case like this. That's right, install Doom3.

Laptop Market share at a local coffee shop

I'm at Dunn Bros Coffee in downtown Minneapolis. This coffee shop is notable for both good coffee and free WiFi. Over the course of the afternoon, I've seen 2 dells, one thinkpad, and 4 recent-model powerbooks. I find it interesting that there are more and more aluminum powerbooks cropping up. I wonder if Chris Sells had the same experience when he came here...

A funny from Laurel

Laurel is in a "disney princess" stage. Sometimes she's Ariel (from The Little Mermaid), sometimes she's Alice (from Alice in Wonderland), and lately she's been Belle from Beauty and the Beast.

She had a very insightful comment a couple days ago. One of the characters in Beauty and the Beast, Lumiere, speaks with a bad french accent. The rest of the characters speak with either an american or a british accent. Laurel's comment was - "Since they're in France, why is Lumiere the only one who speaks french?"

Give it some thought...

A funny from my mom

I promise that this is in no danger of being a 'joke of the day' thing, but I thought this was amusing...

FIND INNER PEACE :

I am passing this on to you because it has definitely worked for me...and as we go through this summer we all could use a little calm.

By following the simple advice I read in an article, I have finally found inner peace. The article read:

"The way to achieve inner peace is to finish all the things you've started."

So I looked around the house to see all the things I started and hadn't finished....and before leaving the house this morning I finished off a bottle of red wine, a bottle of white wine, the Bailey's, Kahlua, and Wild Turkey, the Prozac, some Valium, some cheesecake and a box of chocolates.

You have no idea how freakin' good I feel....please pass this on to those you feel are in need of Inner Peace.