Monday

Worked from home in the morning and early afternoon, then Jeanie and I went to the appointment with my gastroenterologist to get the results from my gallbladder ultrasound and upper GI.  Good news was that they didn't find anything horrible.  Bad news is that he isn't really sure what is causing the gastritis.  His theory is that the cause is either one of the vitamins / supplements that I take daily, or it might be one of my prescriptions.  He suggested that I stop taking the supplements for a while to see if that helps.  He also prescribed a new medicine to try.  Prior to getting the prescription filled, I logged onto the AOPA site and double checked that it wouldn't create a problem with my medical, which it doesn't, so I will go ahead and get it filled, but not start taking it until Sunday, as I plan to do some flying this week, and want a few days after starting the new medicine before I fly, just to make sure there are no side effects that might negatively impact my ability to safely pilot.

Tuesday

Normal work from home day.

Wednesday

Left the house at 8:00 AM to drive up to St. Mary's with Joe from the flying club and his wife to pick up the club plane now that its annual is complete.  Joe flew back, I rode.  Was back at home by 10:00 AM and spent the rest of the day working from home.

Thursday

Received an email asking if I could fly the CAP C-182 plane down to Daytona with another squadron member so he could ferry another CAP aircraft that had been in maintenance back to Craig.  After coordinating with the other member, who happens to live in Jacksonville, we decided it would be easier for him for me to pick him up at Craig since that's where the other plane needed to end up and he lived about 1/2 way between Fernandina and Craig.

The weather was VFR, but it was a bit windy and the ceilings were around 4000 feet.  When I arrived at Craig, it turned out that an aircraft had blown a tire on landing and was still on the runway that the winds preferred, so I ended up having to make a crosswind landing with a fairly brisk crosswind.  It wasn't my prettiest landing, but given the conditions, it wasn't horrible either.

The flight down to Daytona was unremarkable, other than that I had to fly at 2500 feet rather than the 3500 feet I had planned to due to a lowering ceiling.

The flight back home was also unremarkable.

All told, I got in 2.9 hours of flying.  By the time I got back to the airport, it was around 2:00 PM.  Since I had burned most of the day, I decided to hang around the airport and play "airport bum."  Fortunately, there were a number of folks I knew at the airport, either working in the hangars or sitting at the FBO shooting the breeze, so I had lots of folks to visit with.  It was quite enjoyable.

Friday

Ran a full backup of my work PC's hard drive in preparation for the pending installation of Windows XP Service Pack 3.

Watched the two hour season opener episode of Lost.  I liked that we finally learned the explanation of the smoke monster, but I'm on the fence about the rest of the episode and where this final season is headed.

Saturday

I got up around 7:00 AM.  Showed and dressed for my Civil Air Patrol monthly squadron meeting while Jeanie ironed my long sleeve Atlantic Flying Club shirt.  I logged on to DUATS to check weather, NOTAMS, etc. in preparation for my EAA Young Eagles flying while Jeanie made me a breakfast pita with scrambled eggs and cheese.  Threw my flight bags and CAP briefcase into the truck and headed for the airport.

Arrived at the club hangar around 8:00 AM, got the doors open, and started cleaning the airplane windows inside and out.  Mark, one of the other club members arrived around 8:15 and we chatted for a bit while I finished up the windows and he started preflighting the aircraft.  Around 8:45 AM I left to head over to the CAP trailer.  The meeting lasted about an hour, and then I headed over to the FBO to check on the status of the Young Eagles flights.  Mark had flown one load, and one other pilot had taken one kid in his Citabria.  It was fairly windy and gusty, and I was on the fence about whether it was a good day to fly Young Eagles.  I talked with Mark and learned that the kid in the Citabria had gotten sick, and that Mark felt the conditions were "challenging."  We went and talked with the organizers and we all decided that we needed to cancel due to the conditions.  I was disappointed that the kids who showed up didn't get airplane rides and that I didn't get to fly any kids, but agreed that I'd rather have some disappointed pilots and kids than have a bunch of kids whose first experience in a small airplane was unpleasant at best, and scary at worst, due to the conditions.

Headed back home and chatted with Jeanie.  I remarked to her that the squadron had scheduled a cookout for lunch unbeknownst to me, but that I didn't see the point of us going since they only had hotdogs and hamburgers.  Jeanie, in her infinite wisdom, suggested that we grab a couple of Boca Burgers and head over to the airport, which sounded like a great idea to me.

We drove to the airport and threw our Boca Burgers on the grill and proceeded to have a nice lunch.  A number of the other member's wives had come over, so it was a nice social event.  After lunch, Jeanie and I walked over to the FBO and looked at the three beautiful Collings Foundation warbirds that had come in for the weekend: a B-17, a B-24 and a P-51 Mustang.  Jeanie decided she didn't have a burning desire to walk through the aircraft and I had done so a couple of years ago, so we headed off to pick up some specials at Publix, then headed home.

After taking a brief nap, we grabbed a cooler and headed off to Jacksonville.  First stop was the Sam's Club to renew our membership and pick up a few items including some eggs (thus the reason for the cooler).  Then we headed to Jax Beach to pick up my mother to take her to dinner for her birthday.  My mother wanted to go to the Mill House for dinner, and Jeanie and I had anticipated this and decided that since it was for my mother's birthday, we'd make the drive if that was where she wanted to go.  As usual, the food and the service were very good, and we had a pleasant visit with my mother.  After dropping her back at her place, we headed home and arrived at around 8:00 PM.

Went to bed around 10:30 PM after setting the alarm clock for 3:30 AM so we could get up and go to the beach to watch the Shuttle launch.

Sunday

Didn't sleep well.  Awoke for the first time around 12:30 AM.  Slept fitfully for a couple more hours before finally deciding to arise around 2:30 AM.  This was mostly prompted by moderate intestinal cramps that instigated a couple of visits to the commode.

Went into the office and saw that my work PC had blue screened during a boot time defrag I had scheduled.  When I power cycled the machine, it wouldn't boot into windows.  Tried to boot to the recovery console and it would hang before it finished loading.  Powered the system down and left it off for a while.  In the interim, checked the NASA web site for an update on the Shuttle launch.  It reported a 60% chance of launch due to some low clouds in the area, but the local weather for the Space Center according to Intellicast looked promising.

Tried starting the work PC into the Recovery Console again and was able to get the Recovery Console to load.  Ran a chkdsk with no parameters and it showed that there were "one or more errors on the volume.  Ran chkdsk again with the /r parameter in hopes that it could fix whatever problems there were.

While waiting for the chkdsk to complete, did some blogging and occasionally checked the NASA blog.  By 2:40, chances for launch had decreased to 30% due to low clouds in the area of the Space Center.

The chkdsk run on my work PC completed, and I held my breath, rebooted, and thankfully, Windows loaded.  Yea!

At 3:45 AM, I checked with my local shuttle launch viewing mission commander (Jeanie, whom I hated to awaken) and gave her a status briefing (still 30% chance of launch and local conditions of overcast and cold as heck) and she elected to scrub our viewing mission and ordered me back to bed.

Fortunately, I was able to go back to sleep and slept soundly until almost 8:00 AM.  Got up, showered and headed off to the airport for coffee and the monthly Flying Club meeting.  At the meeting, we finally made a decision on which paint shop we will take the airplane to (TRI-D in Wetumpka, Alabama), and I got tasked with coordinating the transport of the airplane to 08A.

I retuned home around 1:00 PM and Jeanie and I piddled around the house until it was time for the Super Bowl.  As has been our tradition for a number of years, Jeanie made us our traditional Super Bowl party snacks including wings and her famous meatballs.   Of course this year, they were meatless wings and balls.  Unfortunately, the balls that we really like are either no longer sold at all or are at least not sold around here; the replacement ones Jeanie was able to find were not to my liking, and the wings were too hot for both of us.  But, the deviled eggs, crudités and guacamole, salsa and chips were all tasty.  Unlike years past, we watched the game in almost real time, and both of us thought that for the first time, the game was actually more interesting than the commercials.  We were both rooting for the Saints, and we were initially discouraged when the Colts jumped out to an early ten point lead, but were excited when things turned around for New Orleans.  Of the commercials, our favorites were two for CBS: the NCIS "head slap" one and the "Late Show" with Oprah,  David Letterman and Jay Leno; the Doritos crashing asteroid observatory; Google; Hyundai Tucson; and the Budweiser pony/calf / horse/steer.

Monday

Worked from home.

Tuesday

First thing, met Joe from the flying club at the airport to transport the club airplane to St. Mary's for our annual.  I flew.  The flight up was a little bumpy, but not too bad.  The weather was really clear and the temperature was very comfortable.  Winds favored runway 22, so I had to keep the downwind pretty short to avoid the King's Bay prohibited area.  There was a little bit of a gusty cross wind, but I managed to recover from a bit of a balloon and make a decent one-wheel landing.  Joe's wife met us there and drove us back to the airport.

Worked from home for the rest of the day.

Wednesday

Worked from home.

Thursday

Worked from home.

In the late afternoon, after Jeanie had finished volunteering at the Barnabus Center, we decided to go for a walk on the beach.  Jeanie came home, we grabbed Cali, hopped in the Durango and headed off to the Scott Road access.  It was a beautiful day, and we thoroughly enjoyed our 30 minute stroll.  Sadly, we no longer take Diego, as the deterioration of the functionality of his hind legs has gotten to the point where he just can't walk for more than a few minutes before the spasticity just gets too bad.

Friday

Worked from home.

Got a haircut at the end of the day.

Saturday

Jeanie and I ventured out to the Hollywood 14 Cinema at the River City Marketplace to see Avatar in 3D.

My comments about the movie can be found in this post.

Afterward, we went to Renna's Pizza in the marketplace.  I like their pizza best of any in this area.  The sauce has a nice zip, and the pizza has a nice thin crust with the puffy thick edge that I like.  Unfortunately, they only have two salads on the menu, an antipasto with lots of meat, and a very plain house salad with only iceberg lettuce, onion and tomato.  I offered to take Jeanie someplace else, but she said that she was willing to sacrifice for me since I had been hankering for pizza for a while and she knew I liked Renna's and we I didn't get there very often.  She is so sweet.

Sunday

Coffee at the airport then home for lunch.  Jeanie has been in the mood for a Burrito Bowl from Chipotle Mexican Grill but the nearest one is almost an hour away, so she decided to make them at home - they were yummy.  After lunch, we finally got around to loading up all the Christmas stuff into the Durango and taking it back to the storage unit.  Somehow, a few Rubbermaid storage containers went missing, so we went to Target and Walmart to find some replacements, but they didn't have any tall ones, which is what we really needed (to protect the table-top trees).  So, for the time being, the trees will just have to sit as they are in the unit until we can either find the ones at home, or find some more suitable bins elsewhere.  While we were at Target, we picked up a sheet of the free 3D glasses for tonight's Grammy Awards tribute to Michael Jackson.

I have been half-heartedly looking for the red/blue variant of 3D glasses for a while now, as every now and then, Astronomy Picture of the Day has a 3D image and I've never been able to view them.  After viewing all of the APOD 3D archives, I started searching the web for other 3D images.  In the process, I learned quite a bit, including the fact that it is more accurate to refer to them as 3D anaglyphs.  With this new knowledge, I went back to look for glasses on eBay, and was surprised to find lots of options.  I doubt I'll buy any, as I think the paper ones will be fine for my occasional viewing.

Afterward, Jeanie and I engaged in an "Eastwick" marathon.  I actually think the show is cute, and was mildly disappointed to learn that it was not renewed for next season.

Monday

First thing went to get the ultrasound of my gall bladder.  That took most of the morning.  As best I can remember, that was the first ultrasound I've ever had.  The technician didn't offer any comments, so I am assuming there was nothing exceptional.  I'll find out in a couple of weeks when I have the follow up appointment with the gastroenterologist.

After returning home, Jeanie and I drove to Jacksonville Beach to pick up my mother from the hospital and take her back to her place.  My mother seemed to be doing remarkably well, and it appears that most of her recent "back pain" was in fact pain from her gall bladder.

Got home around 6:00 PM and headed off to bed pretty soon after that, as both of us were beat.

Tuesday

Jeanie took me to the hospital for my Upper GI (EGD).  We got there a bit early, but the wait wasn't too bad, and they took me back right on time.  The staff was friendly and efficient.  The actual procedure was a non-event for me.  Last thing I remember was them wheeling me into the procedure room and having me bite down on the plastic mouthpiece that serves to protect the patient's teeth and the endoscope.  Next thing I knew, I was in recovery being offered a tasty muffin and some juice.

I am not sure exactly when we got back home, but I had no after effects from the anesthesia or the procedure other than I was a bit tired and spacey for the rest of the day.  As such, I chose to take the day off.

Wednesday

Worked from home in the morning.

In the late afternoon, I went flying with one of the other flying club members.  He just wanted some company while he did some touch and goes and some air work, and I was happy to just sit in the right seat and enjoy the beautiful day.  It still amazes me how much more of the scenery I "see" when I am not the one actually flying.  I did do a little flying from the right seat which I found very interesting, as while it's not that different from the left seat, it's just different enough - in sight picture and in the fact that you "switch hands" (i.e. left hand on the throttle, right hand on the yoke) - that it was interesting.  When we got back, we decided to switch seats so I could do a few touch and goes myself, which I did.  I was pleased with my landings.  It was a very nice afternoon.

Thursday

Worked from home.

In the evening, I installed the new CSH Inc. FCA2-05 Failed Circuit Alarm I had purchased from Amazon.com. 

I finally broke down and purchased one after Jeanie discovered last weekend that the GFI outlet had once again tripped (most likely due to a power "burp" caused by high winds) and the refrigerator/freezer in the garage was without power.  Fortunately, it hadn't been without power for too long, and it was during the cold spell, so nothing spoiled, but still.

Overall, I am pleased with the alarm.  It is well made and well thought out.  Even the way the screws affix the cover to the rest of the box are well engineered.  Two of the screws affix the box to the wall, and then the other two screws affix the cover to the box.  The unit has an on/off switch and a test switch, and plug that goes into the wall outlet is of the piggy-back variety so you don't lose the use of one of the outlets.  The only complaint I have about the unit is that the alarm could be louder - it is just barely audible when standing in the kitchen.  It is not at all audible in the bedroom.  I think it would also help the alarm be more easily heard if it were a warbling type - like on a home smoke alarm - rather than a constant tone type.  The cost was $29.95 plus $7.49 for shipping.  Given the quality of the construction and design, and given that it probably only has a modest market so it doesn't enjoy huge economies of scale in manufacturing, I guess $30 is reasonable, but definitely not "a deal."  Because I really do think it is a good product, and the one "issue" I have with it is the alarm, I did something somewhat unusual (for me) and wrote an email to the company providing my feedback.  I was extremely impressed when I received a response to my email within two hours thanking me for my feedback and suggesting a possible adjustment that might increase the volume of the alarm and also offering to send me a new buzzer.  I haven't gotten around to trying their suggestion, but I am very impressed with their responsiveness.

Friday

Work from home.

Saturday

Went to the Doo Wop Diner on 14th street on-island.  Doo Wop's had formerly been in Yulee, but had closed a number of months ago.  Jeanie had a stack of blueberry pancakes and I had two eggs over easy, toast, hash browns and coffee.  The food was tasty and served hot, but I felt it was expensive at $14 for the two of us, and the service, even though they weren't that busy, was mediocre at best.  Decor was cute, and the music was enjoyable (50's standards, as you'd expect) but a little loud for my ears.

After breakfast, we went downtown and strolled the farmer's market, then walked down to the marina, then stopped by Publix on the way home.  Jeanie bought a couple of loaves of bread - one cranberry walnut and one peasant boule - and categorically demonstrated that any basic white bread (artisan or not) will start her coughing in no time.

We went home and started "Duplicity" with Julia Roberts and Clive Owen.  Jeanie fell asleep part way through, so I switched to watching the premiere of "Caprica" on Syfy.  There is a great article on Wikipedia on the show here.  I really enjoyed the show.  I find it to be less dark (literally and figuratively) than Battlestar Galactica and I think I am going to enjoy the moral and ethical questions it appears it will explore.  While in some scenes it still is easily apparent that computer graphics (CG) are being used, in some scenes - especially ones with Serge - I found myself forgetting that "he" wasn't "real."

Sunday

I went to coffee at the airport.  After about an hour, I had to go to the car to take a work teleconference.  After the call, I went back to the coffee for another half hour or so.

While I was gone, Jeanie did some laundry and made a homemade vegetable soup and a really yummy vegetarian (of course) chili.

The plastic had ripped away from the staples in a number of places on the lanai, so, taking a suggestion from my brother-in-law, I used strips of wood, in the form of some wide thick wooden tongue depressors, as sort of reverse furring strips.  I would have used real furring strips, but I didn't have any, and was too lazy to go get some whereas I had a bag of the tongue depressors.  So far, they seem to be working okay.

Jeanie and I were supposed to take all of the Christmas decorations back to the storage unit, but both of us were feeling really tired, so we gave ourselves the rest of the day off.

We watched the rest of "Duplicity" which we both thought was okay at best.  The interplay between Julia Roberts and Clive Owen was cute, but the movie had lengthy slow portions and the plot twists were a bit too convoluted.

I continued to wrestle with my esophageal discomfort all week.  It wasn't horrible, just mildly annoying.  Still, I'd prefer for it to go away.  Hopefully, when I see the doctor week after next, he'll tell me it's nothing major, and be able to prescribe something to resolve it quickly and easily.

Monday

Worked from home.

Jeanie is away, but I am managing to keep myself occupied so far, so am not too lonely (yet).

Tuesday

Worked from home.

Started watching "V" which I had recorded on the DVR in the bedroom and was saving to watch some time when Jeanie was away, since she isn't interested in watching it.  I had questioned whether I would like it, but so far, it's not too bad.  I don't think it will make it into my list of all time favorite TV shows, but it's worth watching, if for no other reason than the special effects which are quite good.

Also started watching "Sing Off."  It's not bad, but the caliber of the groups is not quite as high as I would have expected, but it's still quite good.  I must say that some of the individual singers are exceptional, and, even "quite good" acapella is better than most of the stuff on TV these days.  I must also say "thank goodness for fast forward" so I can skip all the judges commentary and other junk, and just skip to the actual performances.

Wednesday

Worked from home.  Went to dinner at Tony's Brick Oven Pizza on-island, then went to the monthly CAP safety meeting.

Thursday

Spent the majority of the day making reservations for our trip.  I get so stressed when I make travel reservations.  Things are so complex now because there are so many decisions that have to be made: do I use points/miles or do I pay, which hotel(s) do I stay at, what is the most logical itinerary - especially as with this trip when there are going to be multiple cities and attractions, do I book everything individually or do I book packages?  And then of course, there's the issue of, having finally made a decision, finding out that your choice is not available and having to choose an alternative.  Anyway, I finally got it done.

I then did some research on the Internet to get some more information on the airplane I'll be flying (assuming the weather cooperates this time) this Sunday - a Super Decathlon 8KCAB .  I did find a copy of the flight manual, which among other things, lists the entry speeds for various aerobatic maneuvers.  In my web wanderings, I came across a freeware add-on 8KCA aircraft for Microsoft Flight Simulator, so I downloaded it from here: http://www.flightsimulatorx.it/download/download.php?file=113_Gmax-aca8KCAB.zip&tipo=aereo which I found here: http://www.fs2004.co.uk/freeware/general-aviation/champion-decathlon for Microsoft Flight Simulator.  The installation was a little tricky, as the package had no installer, so I had to do some digging to learn how to do the installation manually.  Fortunately, I found this great resource that walked me through it: http://www.simviation.com/acinstall.htm.  Unfortunately, when I fired up MSFS, I received a message that "Your computer cannot currently use 3-D hardware acceleration as it has less than the required amount of video memory.  Software 3-D mode has been enabled.  Some graphical features may not appear in software mode."  I searched and searched, updated MS DirectX, uninstalled and reinstalled my nVidia drivers, uninstalled and reinstalled my HP My Display program, tried a whole bunch of other fixes I found, but ultimately, nothing worked.  I burned the whole evening trying to resolve this issue.  My guess is that reinstalling Windows and all the applications would fix this issue (as well as lots of others) but, that's not likely to happen until I buy a new PC with Windows 7 - whenever that happens.

Friday

Donated the Dodge Stealth to NPR using their online donation site.  I should have listened to Jeanie and done it a year or more ago, but, better late than never.  I decided to donate it rather than try to sell it because:

1. I hate selling cars with a passion
2. The car has lots of problems not the least of which is it barely runs
3. Donating is quick and painless
4. Even though I might have made a few extra bucks selling it, I do get a small tax deduction from the donation
5. I don't have to feel guilty listening to the local NPR station for the next year or two, even if I don't send them any cash during their begathons - one of which is going on right now.

I also learned a good lesson as a result.  I didn't properly follow the instructions (which were clearly on the web site and excellent) on how to sign the title, and ended up signing in the wrong place.  This is just the sort of mistake that causes me to get so stressed when I do stuff like this.  Well, even though it seemed like it might for a moment, the world didn't end, and the "fix" for my mistake was a relatively minor inconvenience of having to make a call to the nice processing folks, who emailed me a form (apparently I'm not the only person who ever did this), which I then filled out and took to the local bank to get notarized.  My mistake added maybe an extra thirty minutes to the process - not even close to the end of the world.  And, in what was maybe good fortune, it motivated me to get the stuff in the mail today, rather than waiting until tomorrow.

Saturday

Gave blood.  Learned that the reason they ask if you've had aspirin in the last 48 hours is that the chemical composition of aspirin impairs the ability of platelets, a component of blood that plugs leaks in blood vessels to prevent bleeding, to function properly.  There's no issue if you are donating whole blood, but there is if you are donating platelets.  Since I have no interest in apheresis - I'd rather not have to sit for 1 to 2 hours rather than 10 to 15 minutes, and while I don't mind giving up a pint of my precious bodily fluids, I really have no interest in having a portion of them put back into me once they are already outside of me.

The donation experience was slightly marred by the fact that almost immediately after the needle was inserted, the flow stopped, so they had to move me to the other side of the bus and use the other arm.  This is the second time this has happened to me.  The other time was with the American Red Cross in North Carolina.  In both cases, the one thing that seemed to happen was that the "stick" (which is usually just a momentary "pinch" at worst) was quite uncomfortable.  In both cases, I believe what happened is that a bit of skin or meat ended up in the needle, blocking the blood flow.  Fortunately, the second "stick" was almost painless, and everything went smoothly.

Apparently, I am trying to read things too fast, or am not paying enough attention to what I am reading, as I made another mistake related to filling out a form.  One of the questions on the donation questionnaire was "In the last twelve months, have you had a vacation, taken a cruise, or made a business trip outside of the U.S."  I answered "No" because I totally missed the part of above in italics (which I added for emphasis) when I read the question.  Fortunately, the person who checked my hemoglobin, took my vitals and checked the form caught the error and corrected it.  I guess I need to slow down a bit / pay more attention.

Sunday

The plan was for me to go to coffee at the Fernandina airport for an hour or so, and then head to Savannah for my aerobatics lesson.  Once again, my plan to fly was foiled by weather.  This time, the problem wasn't the ceilings, but the wind.  Gusty conditions in Savannah precluded our flying.  So, since Jeanie was still out of town, and I had nothing better to do, rather than leaving the coffee at 10:00 AM as planned, I stayed until after 11:00.  I then returned home and spent the rest of the day puttering around.

Sometime during the week, I started watching the backlog of "Flash Forward" episodes that were stored on the DVR in the bedroom.  Jeanie and I had tried on three different occasions to watch the pilot and had fallen asleep part way through each time.  I finally made it through the pilot and was on the fence, but decided to watch a few more episodes.  It took two or three more episodes to round out the central themes and flesh out the characters, but I eventually decided that it has potential.

Monday

Woke up at 5:00 AM to make sure that Bob was awake.  Bob and Wendy left around 6:30 AM.  Worked from home.  Took a quick nap in the afternoon.  I left the house around 5:30 PM and headed to the airport to renew my night currency.  Conditions were just fantastic.  The moon was almost full, there were just a few high wispy clouds, the wind was calm, the air was as clear as a bell and as smooth as glass.  I did two laps around the pattern, then flew over to the house, then south along the intracoastal then back north along the intracoastal back to the airport for my final landing.  I took our old Panasonic PV-DV400 MiniDV tape camcorder and put it on a full sized tripod that I bungeed to the seat.  Unfortunately, it swiveled to the left a bit, so the view wasn't quite as good as I hoped.  Still, it was interesting to watch.

Tuesday

Took the morning off to fly the Civil Air Patrol C182R.  Had a nice morning.  Ceilings were only 2500 feet, but that was enough to do a few laps around the pattern and some steep turns.  Landings were pretty good.  Video taped the flying using the camcorder.  I had purchased a PCMCIA firewire card for my work laptop a number of years ago (pre USB 2.0) so I could back it up to an external hard drive.  I slapped it into Jeanie's laptop (which has a native i.link port, but I don't have a 4-pin to 4-pin cable, only a 4-pin to 6-pin cable) and the drivers self installed and the video editing software that was preloaded (Microsoft Movie Maker and ArcSoft Showbiz) both were able to pull the video from the camera without a hitch.  After flying, I went to Publix to pick up a few items for Jeanie, went by the bank and got two rolls of the new Zackary Taylor $1 coins, then went to Staples.  I had hoped to pick up one of their $29 after rebate 3 handset DECT 6.0 phone sets, but they were out of stock both in the store and online and they wouldn't give me a rain check - grrr!  I did end up buying a combo (black and color) pack of ink cartridges for our trusty HP Deskjet 970cxi printer.  Normal work from home afternoon.

Wednesday

Normal work from home day.

Thursday

Was awakened at 3:30 AM by what felt like a bug crawling on me.  I got out of bed and was tempted to take a flashlight and look under the covers, but didn't want to awaken Jeanie.  Went into the office and heard the main home PC making a clicking sound that I immediately recognized as a dead or dying disk drive.  After just a bit of problem determination, I deduced that it was my D: drive, which is my main data drive.  Of course it had been a few weeks since my last backup, so I wasn't a happy camper.  I pulled the drive out of the case and crossed my fingers that the old "put the drive in the freezer trick" would work at least long enough to allow me to get the data off the drive.  After an hour or so, I reinstalled the drive, and to my delight, it spun up.  I quickly copied the critical data to the G: drive, then when it appeared that the drive might last a bit longer, I did a full backup to my network storage server. 

About the time I started the data copy to the storage server, I heard Jeanie squeal from the bedroom.  Apparently, what I thought felt like a bug in the bed was in fact a bug in the bed - a large "tree" roach.  Even though I try not to kill bugs (preferring to just take them outside and set them free - unless the bug is of the biting variety) I dispatched this roach down the commode.

Fortunately, I remembered that I had a spare drive in an external enclosure, so I formatted it, copied the data from the failing drive to it, then swapped the drives.  So far, it appears I dodged a bullet.  I can't fault the old drive for failing. it did have over 50,000 hours of powered-on time on it.  Its replacement is a veritable "pup" as it only has about 7,500 hours of run time.

Friday

Worked in the morning.  After lunch, I went to the doctor and got my seasonal flu shot, then went on-island and got a haircut, then stopped by GoPC and picked up a new power supply.  I decided to buy one locally rather than from NewEgg because I didn't want to wait the three days it would take to ship so I was willing to pay $15 extra dollars for a slightly inferior unit.  GoPC only had one option - a CoolMax model v-500, 500 watt power supply with a 120mm bottom mounted fan.  As an interesting aside, I discovered that on the picture on the box, and on all of the pictures on-line, the power supplies are shown upside down - so that the customer can see the fan.  The reviews are mixed on NewEgg on this particular model, with some complaining that it is noisy and may not last that long, but at least so far, it is quiet (quieter than the old PS), and given that the power requirements of this particular PC are modest, I am hoping it will last until I decide to replace the PC with more current technology.

I then went to Wal*Mart and picked up a new battery for the BIOS in the PC, a couple of grocery items and a $10 metal flex style band to replace the fake leather band on my $9 watch.  For whatever reason, the fake leather band is just too uncomfortable for me to wear the watch on my left wrist.  I'm not sure the new band will work for me either, and the clasp style band on my other watch (which is quite heavy) is also not so comfortable, so, I might just have to give up on the idea of wearing a wristwatch and stick with the dorky watch I wear on my belt loop.

After returning home, I installed the new power supply, and since I had the case open anyway, replaced the video card with a slightly more powerful one I had in my "spares" pile.  I finished doing that and got the PC back up and running just in time to dial into a work teleconference.

Another benefit of the PC challenges I had over the last few days.While my main PC was down, I logged into my Bellsouth email account via the browser interface to check my mail... imagine my surprise when I discovered that AT&T has been filtering my mail and that a whole bunch of mail never made it to the POP mail on my PC because it got automatically redirected to the spam folder on AT&T's mail server and therefore was not available to be POPed. Looks like I'll have to periodically check email via the browser for a while and unflag any mail erroneously marked as spam until I can train AT&T's automatic filters.

Saturday

Went to the CAP monthly squadron meeting.  Jeanie and I were going to go to the annual Fernandina Beach Christmas pet parade, but it was cold and rainy, so we decided not to.  I was going to take my 4 old dead UPSs to the city recycling, but the CAP squadron commander happened to mention that he had just purchased new batteries for one of his UPS, but then the UPS itself died, so he ended up taking my 4 UPS to see if he could rebuild at least one working one out of my four plus his (he is very handy in many ways).  Returned home, picked up Jeanie and we ran a few errands on island, then went back home.  Jeanie made her first attempt at cooking paella.  After lunch, we watched "A Dog Named Christmas," a Hallmark Hall of Fame production made-for-TV movie based on the novel by Greg Kincaid that we had DVRed.  The movie was predictably heartwarming and sweet, and Jeanie and I both enjoyed it.  In particular, the acting of Noel Fisher was exceptional.   In the evening, we watched the last two episodes of Monk.  I believe the final series ending episode was one of, if not the, best series finale I have ever seen.

Sunday

Coffee at the airport then Atlantic Flying Club monthly meeting.  Then went to Lowes and Wal*Mart to get some stuff, then home.

One item of stuff I got was another new $10 band for my $9 watch.  Well, technically, I got two new watch bands - one a "long" version of the standard Timex style flexible metal band and the other a metal link/clasp type band.  The "long" flex style band was too big - the watch would just roll around my wrist.  As expected, the link/clasp style band was also too long initially, but it was adjustable.  After doing a bit of Googling, I found instructions on how to remove links.  I was able to get the first two out relatively easily, but the last one was a bear.  Fortunately, one of the other items of stuff I purchased was a 4" pair of vise grip pliers that turned out to be instrumental in getting the last link out.  With one last adjustment to the band - which hole (out of the seven or so) the flex links were attached to on the clasp, the band was "just right."  I wore the watch all evening, and I forgot I was wearing one - which is just what I was hoping for.  I repackaged both of the other replacement bands I had purchased and will return them to Wal*Mart next time I go.

Another item of stuff I got was a plastic two step stool.  I had been looking for one of these for a while.  The reason I wanted one is that I figured out that I could use a stool to help me build strength as I endeavor to increase my ability to do pull ups.  I have actually continued to use Jeanie's gift to me of the Iron Gym pull-up bar by Pro Fit that I initially "installed" on September 20.  I can now do one and one-half pullups from the 90 degree (palms facing my ears) position and 1 1/2 chinups from the palms facing my face position - i.e. I can pull myself up (chin above bar) from a standing start, lower myself all the way down (knees bent so I don't touch the floor) and then pull myself all the way back up and then lower myself back to the standing position.  What I had been doing was using a one step plastic stool to "assist" me in doing additional repetitions.  I would stand on the stool and then use my legs to reduce the amount of weight I was having to support with my arms.  The problem was that the stool wasn't quite tall enough to allow me to get my chin above the bar, so I didn't feel like I was getting a full range of motion in these assisted pullups.  The two step stool allows me to get my chin above the bar.  The downside to the two step stool is that I end up doing a pretty deep knee bend at the bottom of the pullup, so I'll need to be careful about not over stressing my knees.  One other good outcome from Jeanie's gift is that in addition to the pullups (in addition to the two sets of 1 1/2 unassisted, I do 10 assisted from the 90 degree handles, 10 assisted close grip palms facing and 10 assisted wide grip palms away) I also have added some glutes exercises, crunches and pushups.  While I've hit a plateau on my weight loss efforts (I've been the same weight for 8 weeks now), I believe I am replacing some fat with muscle, as I am now able to fit into a pair of pants that Jeanie bought for me a couple of months ago that I couldn't wear comfortably then.

The last part of our weekend was attending the annual Civil Air Patrol Fernandina Beach Senior Squadron Christmas party.  As it was last year, it was held at the Amelia Island Golf Club, which is part of the Ritz Carlton.  Jeanie was absolutely stunning in a slinky black dress complimented by a black sparkly three quarter length jacket.  The dress really highlighted her beautiful waist, and she was by far the prettiest girl at the party.  In fact, when she first modeled it for me at home, it took all of my self control to not just take it off of her right there and ravish her on the spot.  I had fun deciding which of the half dozen or so Christmas ties I have to wear.  I ended up wearing my Looney Tunes tie which is one of my favorites.  Dinner was okay.  There was a salad with walnuts and dried cranberries that had a tasty dressing, a salad with marinated squash (yellow and green) that was boring, a boring orzo and boring new potatoes.  There was no fish dish, so we had no protein.  The highlight of the main course was an acorn squash that was dotted with dark chocolate.  It was delicious.  I wasn't too thrilled with either of the deserts, but Jeanie said she mildly enjoyed them.  I did enjoy getting to socialize with some of the members that haven't been that active lately and getting to meet a few of the new members.  After dinner, we walked up to the Ritz lobby to look at the giant gingerbread pirate ship.  The S.S. Amelia is 17-foot high and 12-foot wide and is made from 1,200 pounds of flour, 900 pounds of sugar, 3,000 eggs and 15 gallons of milk. The pastry chefs and carpenters at the Ritz logged more than 300 man-hours on the completion of this annual project.

Warning.spoilers follow.  If you haven't seen the last two episodes, and don't want the series finale spoiled, don't read any further.

Monday

Left the house around noon to catch a flight to New York City.  Rather than getting a direct flight, I flew through Atlanta, which added a few hours to the trip, but the flights were on time, and the connection was easy.  The desk clerk at the Hilton New York apparently was in a good mood, and decided to upgrade me to a really nice corner room up on the 32nd floor.  Not that I get to spend a lot of time in the hotel room, but it was a nice room and it did bring a smile to my face.

Tuesday

Spent the day in the IBM office preparing for a customer meeting.

Wednesday

Had a quick team meeting in the hotel to do last minute prep for our client meeting, then went to the client's office for a 90 minute meeting.  Went back to the office to debrief and work on some customer deliverables, then grabbed a taxi to LGA for the flight home.  Once again, flew through Atlanta, and once again, the trip was smooth.

Thursday

Normal relatively long work from home day.

Friday

Another normal work from home day.

Saturday

I spent the morning and about half of the afternoon flying EAA Young Eagles.  I had joined the EAA a couple of months ago expressly so I could fly Young Eagles.  The Young Eagles program is a great program and gets great support from the local EAA chapter (943).  At one point, there were nine aircraft including two C-182, our club C-172, a C-150, a Taylorcraft, a Citabria, a EuroFox and a couple more I can't remember.  The weather was a little threatening in the late morning, but thankfully it never got bad, and actually cleared up nicely right towards the end.  Altogether, we flew 47 kids, plus a few parents.  Mark (another club member) and I split the flying in the club plane and each of us ended up with four flights.  I sure hope the kids got half as much out of the day as I did.  I just love introducing kids to the joy of flying in small aircraft.  And, I got to meet a whole new group of aviation enthusiasts whom I had previously not had the pleasure to interact with at our little airport.

After I got home, Jeanie and I headed off to Jacksonville to see the new movie "Amelia" - a movie about Amelia Earhart - on the big screen.  We splurged and split a medium popcorn which I thoroughly enjoyed.  The theater wasn't very crowded which made for a great viewing experience.  Jeanie and I, unlike the majority of film critics,  found the movie enjoyable, with good acting and absolutely gorgeous aircraft.

After the movie, we dropped in to Garden Ridge so Jeanie could pick up some Christmas boxes, then we headed home and watched the pilot of the new USA TV series "White Collar" which we both quite enjoyed.

Sunday

Went to the coffee at the airport as usual.  Unlike usual, decided to have a couple of chocolate chip pancakes.  They were very good.  Talk at the coffee was unusually enjoyable.  More talk of airplanes and flying than local or national politics.  Highlight of the morning was when a Twin Bonanza taxied up to the ramp to drop off a passenger.  It's not every day that you see a Twin Bonanza up close and personal.

Came home and Jeanie made us a nice lunch of salad and spaghetti.

Then we sat and talked for a while, then Jeanie went out onto the lanai to work on the plants and I went into the office to do a mixture of bill paying and work work.

For dinner, Jeanie outdid herself with an amazing dinner of pan grilled salmon and shrimp with her delicious pineapple chutney and homemade mashed potato cakes.  Yum!

Monday

Normal work at home day.

Tuesday

Jeanie went back to her parents to help out.  Dogs stayed with me.  Normal work at home day.

Wednesday

Got a haircut.  Normal work at home day.

Thursday

Normal work at home day.

Friday

Normal work at home day.

Saturday

Gave blood. Blood drive was sponsored by the FB Pirates Club.  Had four bloodmobiles.  Goal was to get 100 units.  Got a nice small cloth bag and a T-shirt.  Was a little nervous that my iron would still be too low, but it was 14.4 which was comfortably within their range for men of 12.5 - 19.  Guess the iron pills are doing their job.  Then went downtown and looked at some of the cars at the cruise in.  Then returned home and waited for Jeanie to return from her parents.  Around 3:30 PM, headed off to the airport to go flying.  Got to play with my new Creative Vado pocket video cam.  Used my small tripod which I bungeed to the headrest of the co-pilot seat.  Not too bad for $40.  Propeller is not totally invisible - exhibits the strange curved appearance you see with video from an iPhone.  Sound when you playback on the unit is horrible, but normal when you view on the computer.  Output to the computer is really cool.  USB transfer yields ready-to-use .avi file.  Tried to set it up so I could see both the instruments and outside.  Tough for camera to handle both from an exposure perspective - it favored the inside, with the outside usually being overexposed.  Flying was pretty good, even though it had been a month, and it was windy/gusty.  After flying, I went to Publix to get some hogie rolls and a few other items.  While I was on the way home, Jeanie cooked some fake chicken and warmed up the leftover peppers and onions I had cooked earlier in the week.  The fake chicken was surprisingly good.  Not quite like real chicken, but pretty darn close.  Watched a couple of episodes of Glee and then called it a night.

Sunday

Coffee at the airport.  Jeanie and I went to Jade's Bistro for lunch then walked downtown for a bit.  Came home and expanded the size of the hole on the birdhouse Dad had made.  Tried to use a hole saw and just scarred up the front.  Tried the carbide ziptool type bit which didn't work that well.  Then used a sanding drum on the Dremel which did work well.  Used the mouse sander to smooth off the front of the birdhouse.  Was able to get most of the scarring blended away.  It's not perfect, but it's not too bad.  Watched the pilot of "The Good Wife."  Better than I had anticipated.

Here we are well into the new winter season...

My comments from this post in September 2007 are still pretty much on the mark.

While the grids I mentioned in this post from the previous September are still around, I found a new grid that's also quite good: http://www.thefutoncritic.com/guide.aspx

In general, the Futon Critic is really an excellent site.  In addition to the really good grid, they have a plethora of other views that are really useful.

There are a couple of canceled shows that made us sad: Eli Stone, Pushing Daisies.  I especially liked Eli Stone.

Shows we're currently watching or are glad are returning:

24, American Idol (J), Army Wives,  Battlestar Galactica (D),  The Big Bang Theory, Bones, Brothers and Sisters, Burn Notice, Chuck, Flashpoint, Grey's Anatomy,  Heroes (D), How I Met Your Mother, Kyle X-Y, Life, Life On Mars, Lost, Medium, The Mentalist, Monk (J), NCIS, Numb3rs, Prison Break, Private Practice, Psych, Rescue Me, Sanctuary, Saving Grace, So You Think You Can Dance, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (D), Ugly Betty (J), The Unit

(J) means only Jeanie watches the show, (D) means only I watch it.

This season, Life On Mars is definitely at the top of our must watch list.  Shows that are somewhat on the bubble (at least for me) include 11th Hour (it just never grabbed me), House (he's just too annoying for me) and Monk (it's stale).  I'm glad at some level that Battlestar Galactica and Lost are ending this year, as it gives both series an opportunity to answer questions and wrap things up; I'll miss both, but I'm getting to the point where I think about five years is enough for an episodic series - at least one with big mysteries / unanswered questions.

I am looking forward to the new spring shows including Castle (I like Nathan Fillion), Better Off Ted and The Unusuals (we like Amber Tamblin from Joan of Arcadia).

We've already given up on Fringe (to far out, even for me) and Dollhouse (I was so hoping Joss would come up with another Firefly, but alas, no).

As I've lamented before, in many ways, I really wish there were fewer interesting shows on TV, as I know that were there fewer shows, I'd spend what little free time I have much more productively.  Oh well, everyone has to have at least one vice, right?

I have this love / hate relationship with television...

I really love watching television, but I hate that I waste so much time doing it.

While there is some intrinsic value in the enjoyment of a good program, I am so often troubled at the time that I spend watching TV that could be so much better applied to other pursuits.

Part of the value I get in watching TV is that it is typically time that I get to spend with Jeanie, and that it is a shared experience with her - at least, that's part of the rationalization I make to justify the time.  Part of the reality, I am afraid, is that it is just so easy - expend no effort and be entertained.  I think that there are similarities between watching TV and taking drugs, and I am afraid I've been addicted to TV for as long as I can remember.  As an aside, I had forgotten, but I posted very similar sentiments at the beginning of the 2003 season.  As another aside, the links to programs grids, etc. from this post last year are still valid.

Anyway, so much for philosophizing...

The new season is upon us, and so far, this is what we've watched and our initial opinions:

New Shows

Chuck - Premise is cute, could have potential.

The Big Bang Theory - We will watch a few more shows, but I think the nerds are a bit too far removed from social conventions and the humor could wear thin quickly.

K-Ville - Much better than I had expected from the previews.  We like the two main characters, and their back stories leave lots of room for interesting plots and twists.

Journeyman - We thought the ending of the first show demonstrated creativity so we will keep it on the DVR schedule for a while longer to see how fresh they can keep the stories.

Reaper - Definitely our favorite new show so far.  We enjoyed the first show and thought it was quite humorous.  It will be interesting to see how they can keep things interesting.

Cane - Jeanie enjoyed it.  I didn't watch it as it seems too sad and mean.

Back To You - We're already on the fence.  It's just not that funny.

Private Practice - It has a great cast, but will Shonda be able to do justice to this and Grey's Anatomy at the same time and keep the shows different enough to both stay interesting?

Bionic Woman - We both enjoyed the first show.  I must admit, I was somewhat surprised, as I didn't expect I would.  It's worth giving it a few more chances.

Life - Will it end up being just another episodic cop show, or will they focus on character development.  The fact that it appears they have a plan for a long term secondary story arc holds promise.

Big Shots - It wasn't as bad as I had expected, given that I thought it would be Desperate Housewives but with male leads, but, it might turn out to be another show that Jeanie watches while I do other stuff.  I'll give it another week or two as it does seem to have some potential.

Moonlight - I enjoyed it.  I thought it has an interesting premise.  Jeanie thinks it may be a bit too far out for her.

Returning Shows

How I Met Your Mother - Probably my favorite comedy at the moment.  My guess is it will continue to stay sweet and moderately humorous.

Prison Break - I thought I was going to cut this from our watch list, as it got so mean last year.  It still seems pretty mean, but we've watch two shows so far, and I'm not ready to cut it from the queue yet.

Dancing With The Stars - I must admit, "So you think you can dance" has spoiled me, but we will probably still record it, as we can watch the parts we like in twenty minutes or so.

Two And A Half Men - I wish they would tone down the laugh track - it is really annoying.  Many of the shows are just dumb, but every now and then, there's a really funny one still.

Heroes - Looks like this season may be just as good as last.

NCIS - It will continue to remain on our list of scheduled recordings.

Bones - It will continue to remain on our list of scheduled recordings.

The Unit - It will continue to remain on our list of scheduled recordings.

House - Jeanie still enjoys it, but I found House to be just a bit too annoying.  I guess that's what some people like about the show, but I think it is time for him to develop a bit more humanity and humility.

Boston Legal - I was concerned that the John Larroquette character was going to be too big an ass, but, maybe not.  If nothing else, we can always count on a few laughs, a thought provoking case, and some entertaining weirdness.

Eureka - Jeanie is bored with the show, and I must admit, they haven't done as good a job of character development or fleshing out secondary plots lines as I would like.  Probably good that the season ends this week...

Grey's Anatomy - This will continue to be our #1 couples show.  Some shows get recorded in the living room because we prefer to watch them earlier in the evening, or on the larger screen, some get recorded in the bedroom just because we already have two other shows recording in the living room at the same time a third (or fourth) is airing.  Some shows, like Grey's Anatomy, intentionally get recorded in the bedroom.

Ghost Whisperer - Jeanie and I had stopped watching about 1/2 way through last season.  The plots were getting repetitive and there was too much focus on the "bad guys."  We decided to give it another try this season and while I am guessing we won't make it through the whole season, we might watch a few more shows.

Las Vegas - Jeanie stayed loyal last season, I was hit and miss.  We watched the two hour season opener, and I think that with the cast changes, there's some room for the writers to add some interest.

Brothers and Sisters - this will remain another one of our bedroom favorites.

Shows on hiatus

Some of the shows we will look forward to coming back in the spring include:

Burn Notice - we both really enjoyed this show, and I think there's still lots of room to keep it interesting.

Psych - one of the few shows that generally manages to hold our interest, even without long story arcs or significant character development.

Monk - I get a bit tired of Monk's OCD, but I still enjoy watching it with Jeanie.

Side Order of Life - Jeanie enjoys it more than I do, but I enjoy watching it with her, and it is often sweet and occasionally funny.

Army Wives - A good mix of single episode stories and multi-episode story arcs, interesting characters with good character development, and lots of room to explore existing plot elements.

Lost - February can't get her soon enough as far as I'm concerned.

24 - Last season started wearing a bit thin in spots, but we'll sign up for another season with Jack.

October Road - It wouldn't break my heart it if didn't come back, but I think it will and we'll probably watch another season.

Shows we're sad got canceled

Raines - We really enjoyed this show.  Probably our biggest disappointment for a new show last season that didn't make it.

Crossing Jordan - Yes, it was probably time, but we still enjoyed it.

Day Break - We found it interesting, and they could have at least provided one last show to explain everything.

Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip - This eased our "West Wing" withdrawal.  Oh well, at least they had the decency to tie up the series and provide closure .

General commentary

In general, it seems that Jeanie and I both tend to favor shows that focus on character development / growth and that have multi-episode (or longer) story arcs.  The story arcs don't need to be the main driving force of the plot, although that's okay, but they should serve as threads that tie one show to the next and provide some development of the character or secondary story elements.  Neither of us like shows with excessive, gratuitous violence (I am a bit more tolerant of this than Jeanie) or have characters that are too mean (Jeanie is a bit more tolerant of this than me).  If the show can have a mix of dramatic and comedic elements, so much the better.  A few laugh till your sides hurt shows would be nice, but alas, it has been years since I can remember one of those...

It's interesting to me how my memory works...

There was this TV show I remembered from my childhood.  I had what I thought was a fairly clear memory of the show as I had always liked this particular story.  I thought it was an episodic anthology series like "The Twilight Zone" or "The Outer Limits."  I remembered that the story had something to do with a man and his dog and going to heaven.  I remembered that the man was sitting on a bench in a foggy area with his dog laying at his feet, and another man came by and told him that he would lead him to heaven, but the dog was obviously distrustful of this other man, and when the first man agreed to go, but insisted that he be able to take his dog, the second man indicated that dogs weren't allowed in heaven, so the first man said in effect, if I can't take my dog, I'd rather not be there.  The man sitting on the bench in my recollection was an older, run of the mill, city type person - the type you might expect to see in a large office in the 1950's or 1960's.  Finally the other man left and then a short time later, yet another man came by and said he was there to lead the man to heaven.  The first man said that someone else had already offered to lead him to heaven, but that he wasn't going since he couldn't take his dog.  The other man says "of course you can take your dog," so they walk off.  Before they all go off screen, the other man pauses for a moment, and a look of realization appears on his face and he indicates that the first other man was the devil taking one last shot to lure the man into hell.

Well, as far as I can tell, I watched that show last night.  It was an episode from the old "The Twilight Zone" named "The Hunt."

The interesting thing to me was that I correctly remembered the major point of the story - that the man's loyalty to his dog (and the implication that a dog can sometimes have a better sense about people and things than a person might) saved him from being misled into hell - but I was totally mistaken on the setting and characterization of the main character -  an old country/mountain type person who had been out coon hunting with his dog.

Since I was young when I saw it, I guess I got the moral, but placed it in a context that was more familiar to a kid who had lived in the city his whole life and who's family worked in office environments.

After doing some internet seaching to see if there were multiple tellings of the same story using different presentations (as far as I could tell, there were not) I learned that the story was written by Earl Hamner, better known for creating, writing, producing and narrating "The Waltons."

A good summary of the key portion of the story can be found in this article from the University of Cincinnatti Magazine.

Three other sites that portray the story in slightly differing variants (although none correctly attributed) can be found here: 1, 2, 3.

I guess I am sentimental.  I enjoyed going back to my childhood memory, even if it was distorted, and I definitely enjoyed reliving the moral and the happy ending.

I found these a while ago...

So many shows, so little time...

I love my Kyocera 7135 phone, which is a combination of a cell phone and a Palm based PDA...

Oh my goodness. We had to wait quite a few weeks to get started with this season's 24, but oh my! ...

Finally, new shows!

Sort of...

Yea! 24 is back.

I've watched a few more episodes, and the verdict is in.

These are the shows that we make sure to tape if we're not going to be able to watch them in real time:

Jeanie left to go out of town yesterday, so I finally got to watch a couple of new TV shows that had looked interesting.

When I was growing up, such a question would never have crossed my mind.

I am so glad that Farscape has started its new season. The next episode should be really good, with the reunions with both Moya and Aeryn.