Sleigh Wreck

Over the holidays, Rae and I visited her mom in Asheville, North Carolina. Her sister Kate was there too, visiting from Montana.

We visited the Grove Park Inn, and, naturally, toured this year's display of national-competition-grade gingerbread houses.

Here's my favorite. It took us a little while to grasp the genius. At first, it looked like this one was a victim of the hands of little children (that happens a lot there, some sort of child-candy reflex). But no! Santa Crashed! Notice the gingerbread man checking out the wreck from his window, the way Santa and the elf are standing around looking downtrodden, and the reindeer with his head knocked off. (And the cutie in the background.)

The view from the backyard is equally bleak...

Rick Rubin

Rick Rubin is one of my heroes. He co-founded Def Jam Records, and later Def American, which is now known as American Recordings. The list of musicians he worked with includes Slayer and Public Enemy -- real high-school favorites of mine!

For Christmas this year, I got the Rubin-produced Johnny Cash album Unchained. Spectacular! One of the tunes is Rowboat, which was originally sung by Beck.

And so, in the spirit of holiday sharing, I offer you mp3 versions of both Beck_Rowboat.mp3 and Cash_Rowboat.mp3! Check them out and let me know which one you think is the most rockin-ist.

The Beck version is off his Stereopathetic Soulmanure album. I became a Beck fan when I first heard Satan_Gave_Me_A_Taco.mp3. This song is absolutely amazing! Check it out!

Christmas Lights

We are festive, no? I'm maybe not so good at low-light photography, but I do take great pride in our lights. Note the real icicles by the front window, looking so very integrated with our icicle lights.

Swayze In Sink

I submitted this picture of Swayze to cats in sinks. A note on their page says they're up to 2000+ submissions -- hopefully Swayze will make the cut!

Coffe House Finder

Here's a cool site that helps you find non-corporate coffe shops in your zip code. Cool beans.

Thump in the Trunk

My new toy...


...is an adolescent dream fulfilled.

Next I'm going for this. Okay, maybe not.

Painting The New Place

I dug through some unpacked boxes and found the cable that connects the camera to a computer. Here's a set of before-and-after pictures from the living room. Big improvement, no?

Dave's Calculator Circa 1976

Little Professor rocks!

StumbleUpon Firefox Extension

I was checking out some of the extensions available for the Firefox browser, and decided to give StumbleUpon a try. As far as I can tell, it's a pseudo-random web surfer that takes you to pages that other StumbleUpon users have rated as good, and which match your preferences and interests.

You create a profile with your interests the first time you use it. Naturally, I clicked on "cats" as one of my interests. Because I find them very interesting. The very first time I used StumbleUpon, it took me to a spectacular blog with jumping cats. What a winner!

By the way, I am a guy named Dave and I have a blog. Do you think it's coincidence that my first stumble took me to another blog by another guy named Dave? I dunno, maybe they put that in the code. Perhaps someone with a less common name can try StumbleUpon and see what happens to them.

Covering All The Bases

"Forgive me of my trespasses, and forgive those who have trespassed against me. Take my will and my life, and the whole nine yards."

- Johnny H.

R. Buckminster Fuller

Did you know you can buy stamps from the post office online? In fact, you can buy cool R. Buckminster Fuller stamps.

I am somewhat familiar with one of R. Buckminster Fuller's more well-known inventions / discoveries, the bucky ball. Due to its apparent total lack of applicability, it tends to be the butt of engineering jokes (e.g. "nice invention geek-boy, looks about as useful as a bucky ball.").

Turns out he's a pretty idealistic guy with good intentions, he's just a bit nutty. To make my point, here's a R. Buckminster Fuller quote and an image of one of his wacky ideas.

"...make the world work for 100% of humanity in the shortest possible time through spontaneous cooperation without ecological offense or the disadvantage of anyone."

And what better way to do that than installation of a dome over New York...

Ozzie Wins World Series!

I became a fan of Ozzie Guillen this year. He managed the White Sox to a world series victory. A Chicago hero!

I am also a fan of Ozzy Osbourne.

I know, I know, he put out a lot of crap. Like, a whole low. But there's no denying the first few Black Sabbath albums.

Can't dig it? Check out Fairies Wear Boots off the Paranoid album.

New Place!

Well, here it is! We got the keys last week from our new landlords, Dick and Janet. This past weekend was spent painting prior to the big move (before and after pictures forthcoming).

This aerial shot is from Google Earth. Even from this high up, you can tell it has a garage! But wait, there's more, it also has a dishwasher! And, perhaps greatest of all, no punk-ass upstairs neighbors!

Chocolate Covered Bananas

Last weekend I went out on a limb and whipped up some chocolate covered bananas. Wacky! The ones I made didn't turn out as good as the ones they sell at A La Mode, but they were still pretty good. I put almond flakes on some of them (not pictured). That was a good call.

Here's the recipe:

1 1/2 c. nuts
3 tbsp. butter
4 firm bananas
1/2 c. semisweet chocolate morsels
8 wooden skewers

Measure nuts into shallow pan and set aside (I used a double boiler; it worked pretty well). Melt butter and chocolate morsels together in small saucepan on low heat, stirring constantly until smooth. Pour chocolate mixture into second shallow pan and set aside. Peel bananas and cut in half cross-side. Immediately dip bananas in melted chocolate to coat evenly. Roll in nuts, pressing nuts into chocolate to coat evenly. Place on wax paper lined tray. Freeze firm for 2 hours. Rice Krispies may be substituted instead of nuts.

Tractor Hottie Spotted at Apple Fest

Apple Fest

This weekend was the big apple fest. It was really muddy there, but nonetheless we had apple dumplings, apple fritters, and apple cider. Rae got a caramel apple to take home, too. It was kinda like a state fair, but without the drunk people and has-been rock bands. And with more apples, of course.

There were many tents full of crafts. The average age of an apple-fest craft vendor is 75. We found a wood carver who sold me this orb. He was maybe 95. Cool orb, no?

A-Rod Wins Inaugural DLB October Goat Award

Yankee haters rejoice! The first annual Dave's Little Blog October Goat award goes to none other than the $252 million dollar man himself, Alex Rodriguez.

A-Rod, whose post-season has been lukewarm at best, became a lock for the October Goat when he hit into a double play in the ninth inning last night, leaving the Yankees one out away from elimination.

And eliminated they were, by a guy with a cooler name, K-Rod. By the way, $252 million dollars is, like, a quarter of a billion dollars.

Sox Get Rest of October Off

The Red Sox got swept by the White Sox. Looks like my baseball hero, Johnny Damon, will be watching the rest of the playoffs on t.v. I'll be watching the playoffs on t.v. as well, which means Johnny and I have something in common!

I think I'll pull for the White Sox the rest of the way out. I like that Ozzie Guillen guy.

Swayze Okay

Swayze's test results came back, and the vet said that he had some "fatty tissue," and not a cancerous tumor.

Hurrah for Swayze!

Swayze the Brave

And you thought you had a rough week! Swayze had surgery a few days ago to have a tumor removed - here he is showing off his stitches. After the surgery, the vet said he felt optimistic that it was benign, but the test results won't be back for a week or two. On top of that, he has ring worm on his head, which is apparently a bacteria thing (no actual worms).

We've been trying all sorts of tricks to get him to take his pills. Just throwing it in with his food worked for a while, and after that the old mix-it-with-tuna trick worked once or twice. Now were on to the tried and true method of Dave holding him down while Rae jams the pill down his throat.

Apparently guards the trash cans...

Came across this guy (gal?) in the back yard near the trash cans. Yikes!

I was so impressed that I took a few pictures. I wish I would have taken one with me holding up a quarter next to it so that you could tell how big it was. Of course, that would have involved getting closer to it.

Snacks

In case you're not in the know, these are really yummy. Did you know you can buy cookies at amazon.com? Me neither. You can bet they're on my wishlist now though.

I got a box for the office, and also a box of the standard milk chocolate ones. Rae bets they'll be gone in a day. I'm hoping each box will last a week. So far, one day, three cookies. But the day is not over yet.

This American Life

I have decided that This American Life is the greatest radio show ever. Produced at WBEZ in Chicago, hosted by Ira Glass, it airs weekly on NPR.

One of my personal favorite episodes is Know Your Enemy. Act two in this episode features Jello Biafra, who should be one of your childhood heroes if you're between 30 and 40 years of age.

Spanish Scooters

I was captivated by the scooters in Barcelona. There are thousands of them everywhere. Folks were riding small motorcycles too, such as the BMW F650GS.

In Barcelona, scooters are treaded much as bicycles are treated in the U.S. Traffic laws are applied loosely at best. Parking a car in Barcelona is like parking in Manhattan, but parking a scooter in Barcelona is as simple as pulling up on the sidewalk and turning off the engine.

I got a kick out of the businessmen riding (scooting?) to work in their suits.

Barcelona!

Holy smokes -- I'm in Spain!

I arrived in Barcelona on Saturday morning. So far, I've seen one million scooters, drank espressos, come close to trying to pet a pack of feral cats, had terribly irregular sleeping patterns, and explored the downtown/port area.

It took all the restraint I could muster not to pet the cats. They were so cute! But there were a bunch of them, and none of them had collars. Then I noticed that they were eating food off the ground (folks here apparently leave piles of cat food on the street for the feral cats to eat). I asked the guy at the hotel if the cats were wild.

Hotel Guy: "Wild?"

Me: "Do they live with people?"

Hotel Guy: "Oh, no, they are wild."

Me: "So I should not pet them?" (with accompanying hand gesture)

Hotel Guy: "It would not be a good idea."

This is the Port de Barcelona. I brought my camera, but I forgot the cable that connects it to the computer, so I'll have to wait until I get home to post pictures of my own.

Having trouble falling asleep? This is sure to knock you unconscious -- read about the conference on computational plasticity I'm attending.

Greatest Picture Ever?

I was looking through my digital photo archives to pick out an image for my profile when I came across this gem. It's from Halloween 2003.

In case you don't know me - yes, it's a costume. The muscle shirt really completes the look if you ask me.

Saved by the Mandles

I'm talking 'bout man candles, not man sandals (a post in their own right).

I'm at my work apartment last night, showering up after a trip to the gym -- and the power goes out! At first it was on-again off-again, and then it was just off. There are no windows in my bathroom...it was so dark I couldn't see my hand in front of my face.

Okay, so I manage to bathe in the dark. But then I'm trying to get ready for bed and I can't see a damn thing. Then I remember -- I have mandles! They're right there in the same spot where I put them a year ago when I moved in. Lit twice in the first week, then expelled from my mind altogether.

Matches? No problem. I keep them stacked OCD-style on my cigar box, right there on the dinner table.

Once I got everything under control with the mandles, I took a look outside. Sure 'nuf, the whole neighborhood was blacked out. Eerie! I was glad it wasn't a fuse in my building, because I might have actually had to deal with that myself.

Added bonus: no power means I couldn't set my alarm clock, so I got to sleep in!

Illustration Invitation

If anyone is inspired to draw illustrations for Rose or Froggy, go for it!

Too bad you can't post images in a comment (please correct me if I'm wrong about this!).

I guess you could post them on a different blog and put the URL in a comment. That would work. Or just e-mail me if you have my e-mail address (which I don't want to post for fear of the spam).

Snail Tale

It was hide-and-seek time! Rose the snail left her garden work behind and ran to the grassy patch. She looked for places to hide while she waited for Sally and Peanut to arrive. Rose saw the dandelion where she had hidden last time -- what a great spot that had been! Today, she thought, her hiding spot would be just as good.

Sally and Peanut finally arrived. "Ready to play?" they asked. Rose was ready indeed. "Let's play!" she shouted, "I'll hide first!"

But Peanut found her behind the round stone almost immediately. Rose's hiding spot in the tall flowers didn't fool her friends either. Why was Rose having such a hard time at her favorite game? "I'll try harder this time," she thought, "they'll never find me in the mossy log." But they did find her, and quickly. "No fair!," shouted Rose, "you peeked!" But Sally and Peanut had not peeked. It was Rose's shell that had given her away; it stood out against the green moss on the log. "I quit!", said Rose, "I've had enough hide-and-seek."

Rose felt unhappy as she headed home. She was tired from all her work in the garden. She was frustrated because her hiding spots had been discovered so quickly. She was worried that the vegetables she planted might not grow.

Rose went to her garden when she got home. As she looked around, she saw a familiar face -- it was Betty the Butterfly! Betty had flown over from her home in the apple tree to help with the tomatoes and cucumbers. "I thought you might need some help!" said Betty.

Rose and Betty spent time together, working in the garden. Betty was concerned about her friend. "Rose, you look so tired! How much time have you been spending on your garden?" When Rose told Betty that she had spent many hours working in the garden, Betty had an idea. "Why don't you take a rest in your snail house, and I'll finish up with the tomatoes? Then we can have our supper together." Rose didn't want to take a break, she was worried about the plants and wanted to keep working in the garden. But Betty the Butterfly insisted, "you go have a nap," she said, "I'll be finished here in no time."

When Rose laid down for a nap, she fell into a deep sleep. She dreamt of ripe red tomatoes, and of all the wonderful hiding places near the grassy patch. When she finally awoke, Betty had finished the garden work, and together they cooked a tasty dinner. As they ate, Rose thanked Betty for her help.

"Best of all," said Rose, "you gave me a chance to take a rest. I didn't realize how tired I had become working in the garden. I was so tired that I behaved badly when the game of hide-and-seek didn't go my way."

The garden didn't seem so overwhelming, and hide-and-seek didn't seem so frustrating, now that Rose was resting in her snail house with her good friend Betty.

Long Island

Everyone from work is here at the big demo on Long Island. Close to sixty people I think. So far, the days have been long, but the feedback from the "red team" has been good. I don't think they have the power to single-handedly get Phase II approved, but I'm sure they have the power to single-handedly squash it if they aren't happy with our progress. It's all sort of like a job interview. Even if the interview goes well, you really don't have any idea what the folks on the other side of the desk are thinking. So much goes on behind the scenes.

I'm excited to post my new story about Rose the snail! I had a great time putting up the Froggy story, so I went ahead and wrote another one. I put a lot more time into the new one. Not sure why exactly. It's longer, but not that much longer. The first one I just wrote and liked it right away, but I had to go over the new one a few times before I was happy with it.

By the way, if anyone knows the guidelines/rules for quoting dialog, I'd like to know. When do you include the quote in a paragraph of prose, and when do you break it into a separate paragraph? Is it okay to have multiple sentences inside a single set of quotes when the quote is included directly in a paragraph of prose? I did that in the Rose story, and it doesn't look right for the longer quotes.

Oh well. Writing stories is an art, and I shall apply artistic license!

Random Question

Here is my answer to the "random question" section of my profile. It turns out that your answer to the random question can't be more than 150 characters. But they don't tell you that until after you've finished answering the question.
____

A frog named Froggy leapt from lily pad to lily pad. Oh, how he leapt! He felt so free! He glided through the air...hop, hop, hop. But wait -- he felt a strange feeling on his noggin. What's this? His wig was missing!

How could this have happened!? Perhaps he lost it on the bank of the pond. He checked the bank. Nope, no wig on the bank. Perhaps it was back in the comfy frog hole where he had been napping. No, not there either! Then he saw his friend Happy Toad. "Why Froggy," said Happy Toad, "you decided to leave your wig at home! You look so nice without it! I've always felt that perhaps you were just hiding behind your wig, afraid to show the world your true frog head."

Froggy thought about what Happy Toad had said. It was true, he really had been hiding behind his wig. Perhaps from now on he would venture out of his frog hole without a wig, showing his frog head with pride for all the world to see.

Now he knew why he had felt so free!

Rob Zombie Quote

I'm feeling pressure to post a good post here on the new blog. Actually, I'm feeling pressure in all areas of life these days.

Here's a Rob Zombie quote that I read in an Onion AV Club interview:

"Once you feel like you're being dictated by other people's expectations, it usually backfires. You just have to do the thing that you feel is true to your vision, and then the audience will make the decision. But as soon as you feel like you're creating a product to just cater to what you think they want, it never works. It always feels phony. And the audience can tell immediately."

Ah, a new blog.

Hello, world!