Halloween is big around our house.......

Yes, many full moons ago on this very day, Mrs. Lime was born. She says that it made for great birthday parties because all of her friends would get dressed up and they'd go trick-or-treating in the neighborhood before coming back to the house to eat birthday cake and open presents. Sounds like a good gig to me.

As long as everything goes well, this will also be the last birthday she has without a child in our family. By this time next year, we'll be dressing up our baby in some stupid pumpkin outfit or MU cheerleader outfit that doesn't even fit her small body. But it won't matter. Stupid baby pictures are perfect blackmail for when that kid gets to high school or college. I'm sure that Mrs. Lime and I will have plenty of those via our digital camera and video recorder. For that matter, I'm not sure that much of this blog will actually be about myself or Mrs. Lime once that baby comes along.

So, hopefully Mrs. Lime has a wonderful birthday. We've got loads of candy ready for the new neighbors and their kids. Hopefully, they show up in droves or else Mrs. Lime and I will have to find ways to give away a lot of perfectly good candy. I have a feeling we'll do just fine.

ADVERTISEMENT TO LOCAL KIDS IN KC...........Mrs. Lime gives big handfuls of candy to all comers. Hurry over before she gives it all away!

Last year in Baltimore, we actually gave it all away too soon and had to close shop for 10-15 minutes until we scrounged up some other stuff to give to the kids. I'm thankful that we actually found more stuff or there might have been riots in the streets.

Science day.......

Today, a very important announcement was made by NASA. They will be sending up a space shuttle mission to complete needed repairs to the Hubble Space telescope that will allow it to stay in operation through the end of the decade. The Hubble telescope has provided amazing views of galaxies and planets that have never been seen with the detail that the Hubble telescope allows. New findings about galaxy and star formation have been furthered through the use of this telescope. It's an amazing piece of technology and will now be useful through 2010 when a new telescope will be put into orbit to replace Hubble. At that point, Hubble will burn up as it plunges out of orbit through Earth's atmosphere.

Here's a site where you can see some of the great pictures that Hubble is able to take. They also have a wallpaper section where you can put some of the galaxy pictures right on the desktop of your computer.

Hubble Pictures

Time change.....

The time change threw me for a loop today. My body kept telling me to get up starting around 3:00 AM this morning. I was surprised to see it was so early, so I closed my eyes to go back asleep.

I woke up again and took a look at the clock. 3:20 AM. Ugh. One of those days.

Next wake up call came at around 3:45 AM. I'm really not too happy at this point.

I woke up 2 more times before I finally woke up at 5:43 AM (two minutes before my alarm was to go off). I decided to not attempt to sleep for two more minutes and just went ahead and got up. I have no clue how my body is going to react later this evening. Hopefully, I won't go to sleep too early or I'll end up with the same problem tomorrow morning that I had this morning. And that would NOT make me a happy camper.

So it does pay to be a nice guy!

Yesterday, Mrs. Lime and I dropped by a mall in the area. Mrs. Lime needed to get some more maternity clothes. Since I knew she'd be shopping for awhile, I thought I'd go to the nearby sports shoe store.

I have to go out and grab some new shoes every couple of years or so. I wear basketball shoes non-stop. They're comfortable and ready for any situation. I can do anything from sit at my desk working to running to get the car in the parking lot. They're good for anything. Multi-task footwear at its finest.

I like bright colored or really nicely styled shoes. As I've found from experience, it's pretty evident that women tend to notice nice or bright colored shoes much more so than men. I'm guessing that has to do with women's general enjoyment of shoe shopping. I have 5-6 pair of shoes; my wife has 50-75. They just like shoes and evidently tend to look at other people's shoes. There's several women in the building (there's over 1,500 people in our building, so you don't know everyone) who often comment when I wear shoes that they like, but have no clue who I am. I'm generally known as 'the guy with the shoes'. I guess I could be known for worse things than having nice shoes.

So I headed into the store to look for some shoes. I'm a guy who doesn't necessarily look to have the latest shoe model that just came out. Most athletic companies release new shoe models once a year, just like cars by Ford or something like that. I tend to look for the models that are 8 months to one year old. They're usually marked down to half what they would have cost new, yet they're just as good as the ones that were released at the very beginning.

I went over to the rack and immediately saw the line of Jumpman shoes by Nike. These shoes originally started being created in the early 1980s. You may also know this line as the Jordan shoes (because they were created specifically for Michael Jordan by Nike). They are called Jumpman shoes because of the silhouette of a jumping Michael Jordan on all the shoes. They're always really slick looking and I've bought many a pair of Jumpman shoes.

I was standing by the shoes looking for a salesman. It became pretty obvious that there was only one guy running the store as he was dashing in and out of the storeroom in the back getting shoes for multiple customers. He saw me standing on the side and asked if I needed any help as he was going by with someone else's shoes. I said I did, but that he could finish up with the other people and then come back. He said OK and then headed over to finish working with a couple of other customers.

After a couple of minutes, he came back by and asked what I wanted to see. I asked him to bring me a pair of black hi-tops and a pair of red and white low-tops. The low tops were the bargain pair on sale and the black pair was regular price. He brought the shoes out, but had a line of 3-4 customers who were ready to check out, so he went over to the register first to try to get some of them taken care of first. I saw that he was getting out one of my shoes and lacing them up while checking out someone else, so I walked over to get the shoe to try it on and make it easier on him. I did the same with the second pair and told him I'd take them both. I also got a couple of heavy sweatshirts that were 'buy 1, get 1 free'.

I went to wait in line. It now was obvious that there was a teenager in the front of the line who tried to write a check for his purchase and the check was denied. He was pretty frustrated and was running the sales guy through the ringer. Meanwhile, the line had grown to 5-6 customers while this guy was complaining. I finally got up to the front and commented that it looked like he was having one of those days. He said that he had one employee not show up and another had to pick their kid up from daycare. So he was left alone to run the store.

It looked like I settled the guy down a bit because he appeared to relax. He reached into his pocket and told me he was going to give me a coupon that was for 30% off and 40% off if I spend over $100. I had done that, so it was a massive savings for me. Instead of spending around $300 on everything I purchased, I only had to spend $160 for everything. Great savings and I was pretty sure I had just earned $130-140 just by being nice to a guy for a few minutes who was having a bad day. Score one for me!

Moral of the story: Nice guys may finish last, but they end up spending less at shoe stores.

The Nova Cam...........

Rarely does the outside world have such exclusive access to one of the most amazing events known to Kansas City. Simply put, it's called squirrel hunting.

Nova is well known for his squirrel hunting exploits. Although he has yet to actually ever catch a squirrel, that matters very little in the grand scheme of things. Nova is more of a sport hunter. He runs after animals at break-neck speed, fully knowing that there's no way in hell that his 80 pound body will ever catch a squirrel in this lifetime. Yet he continues on in the hopes that one day, a squirrel may sprain one of his ankles and that he'll actually be able to catch that squirrel.

We have top secret technology that allows us to mount a digital camera to the top of Nova's head and see first-hand how the prey is stalked by the great game hunter we like to call Casanova. Here are the exclusive first photographs from the Nova Cam (patent pending) during a recent hunt.

It appears that he is now locked in on his target. Notice the squirrel taunting him from the yard as he looks through the window.......



Note the raised ears as the great hunter watches the prey start to move away from the window.......



The great hunter begins to become anxious as the squirrel slowly continues to move away from the house. We need to move now or he's going to get away!!!!!



Switching to a traditional camera, we now see the great hunter inspecting the grounds, trying to sniff out the trail of the squirrel.



He continues his inspection, hoping to find anything that might indicate which tree the squirrel might have used for his escape.



A scanning of the yard from a good viewpoint, hoping to make a visual confirmation of any targets......



Excitement turns to dismay as he soon realizes that the squirrel has won yet again.......



Oh, but there will be a next time and Casanova will be there to make sure the squirrels never rest easy.

Big brother is always watching you........

I was sitting in the living room the other night just goofing around on the computer. I had this sudden feeling that I was being watched. Sometimes you just get that feeling and it's usually right.

My suspicions were soon confirmed as I looked up at the catwalk on the second floor.......







It now appears that our catwalk will henceforth be known as a 'dogwalk'.

How you know it's dinner time......

Here's what always shows up in my peripheral vision starting at 4:15-4:30 PM every single day.......



Here's what happens when I don't acknowledge the subtle hint he's giving me by sitting nearby......



Notice the fact that he's moved a whole lot closer because he didn't think he was getting the attention that was required? That's my relationship with my dog in a nutshell. The poor guy is neglected and never gets enough attention (in his honest and quite forthright opinion).

The new neighborhood........

Yes, this is the midwest and people are still very social and welcoming. We received our first neighborhood gift the other day. A lady down the street brought us some bread (we think it's pumpkin bread). It was very nice of her to do that and Mrs. Lime ate a lot of it, so it must have been good as well.

Another lady noticed Casanova and I standing on the master bedroom balcony and took time out of her walk to say hi to us. She commented that we had a really nice home and that they were glad to have another home that was being lived in. Most of the neighbors have seen our home already, because it was an open house before we moved into it.

I met two more neighbors last Friday when I went out for a quick round of golf on the course in our neighborhood. I originally started playing by myself and then eventually joined up with them. It was a father and son. The son was a builder and had built his own home in our neighborhood. The son also built a home next door where his parents now live. They're very nice looking homes just off the 8th green on the golf course. The father is an owner of a major flower sales chain in the area. Evidently, the son has a golf training room in his basement. I've been invited over to see this training room, so I'll have to take him up on that offer.

As a sidenote, the golf course in our neighborhood was rated the 2nd best golf course for 2006 in Missouri, trailing only a Fazio-designed golf course in Branson, Missouri. This has resulted in raised prices, but I still was able to play the course with a cart the other day for only $40, which isn't bad at all. There is also another course about a mile from our home that can be played for about $25 with a cart in the afternoons. It's a fun course as well and a great price for what you get.

Belly Pics - Week 25

Yes, I've missed a couple of weeks because I've been busy putting our new house together. One thing that is really obvious when comparing this picture to the last picture is that our baby is getting bigger in a hurry. She's a very good kicker as well. I talked loudly to Mrs. Lime's belly the other night and the baby was in no mood for noisy people. She kicked pretty hard and let us know that she wouldn't be having any of that.

War is quite a brutal thing.........

I've cited this blog before: A Marine Story. This blog is written by a guy from central Missouri who just headed over (voluntarily) for his third tour of duty in Iraq. Tough story in his latest blog entry.....

When Warriors Weep

I went to the memorial service last week for a young Marine killed by a sniper while working to make life better for Iraqis in a little poop-water town in western Iraq. This was my third service since I arrived six weeks ago. Each one has been stark in its raw emotion; each a farewell to a warrior from warriors. But this one touched me very deeply, even though I did not know him.

The Regimental Commander, Command Master Chief and I flew to Al Taqqadum from Fallujah to attend, arriving the day before. The fallen Marine was from one of our subordinate units, 9th Engineer Support Battalion, commanded by a friend of mine. The service itself was to be held at 5pm, to enable many of the young man’s comrades to attend. Through their grief, the young men of Bravo Co., carried on the difficult mission at hand, only stopping long enough to pay tribute to their brother Marine.

The “chapel” is a low slung building of small metal tubing and plywood walls with homemade wooden benches and cheap plastic chairs. As we arrived I wondered where everyone was, there was nobody milling about outside. When we entered, I understood. Jammed into every space possible were several hundred Marines and sailors, sweating profusely in silence.

Many in attendance were covered in dirt and grime, some still in flaks and helmets. They were overwhelmingly young men and women in their late teens and early twenties; yet they did not look young. Bravo Co. is a reserve outfit based in South Bend, so many of these Marines had grown up together. At the front of the chapel was the traditional symbol of rifle, bayonet, helmet and dog tags and next to the tribute was a large picture of a smiling young man, framed by an American and Marine Corps flag.

“Chaps”, as the battalion chaplain is called began the service with an appropriate invocation. Then the lights were dimmed and a video tribute came on. The melancholy notes of Green Day’s “When September Comes” drifted across the chapel as picture after picture gave us a sense of who this young man had been in life. There were the typical pictures of a young man at war, but mostly, there were pictures of an engaging young man with all-American looks and a huge smile. Then quite abruptly there appeared a video clip of the Marine doing the “Duck Dance” with one of his buds as his friends laughed, taken only days before his death. That stupid dance you see at wedding receptions, which never fails to look absurd, shook me. For that moment he was still alive and through the sniffles I heard chuckles in the crowd.

Then my mind drifted back a couple of weeks to when I found out Cpl. Aaron Seal had been killed. Initially, details were sketchy, but Cpl. Seal was a combat engineer and had been shot while working on the roof of what would become an Iraqi police station. It was mid-afternoon on a Sunday when the report first came in and my thoughts immediately went to his family. Somewhere back home in Indiana they were just getting up on a Sunday morning, probably doing Sunday morning things like reading the paper and getting ready for church. They were probably thinking of their young man at war and praying for his safety not knowing what I knew; Aaron was already dead. Soon enough, two Marines would show up at their door in dress blues and change their lives forever.

My thoughts returned to the service as the montage ended and three of his friends spoke in tribute. They were tough, hardened men who openly wept as they recalled beers drank, fights fought, and dreams dreamt. The last Marine read a poem called “Ode to a Marine” which Aaron’s girlfriend had requested to be read at the ceremony. One stanza stuck in my mind:…

Yes, he has chosen to live a life
Off the beaten track,
Knowing well each time he’s called,
He might not make it back.
So, next time you see a Devil Dog
Standing proud and true,
Be grateful for all he’s given;
He’s given it for you…

- Jeannie Salinski

Tributes over, muster was called one last time, …“Corporal Aaron Seal”… a Marine read aloud, waiting a response we knew would not come. We rose to attention as seven Marines outside fired a 21 gun salute in crisp precision, followed by Taps.

The service ended with a benediction from Chaps and then one by one we each approached the rifle and helmet of Cpl. Seal to pay our last respects. Colonels to private, there was no rank now, only Americans. Some knelt and softly touched the boots, others placed their hands on the helmet, most stood in silent thought and prayer.

Having been one of the first to pay our respects, the Commodore and I stood outside the chapel as the other Marines exited in silence. Some gathered in small groups while others stood by themselves and wept, only to soon be embraced by a fellow Marine. Many smoked cigarettes in nervous silence with swollen red eyes, and yet others laughed at memories shared quietly among friends. But, this was not our time and I tried to look away. This was the real farewell.

At the time of his death, Cpl. Seal was just 23 and left behind a beautiful girlfriend and loving family. I did not know Aaron but I will never forget him.

Taking the tractor out for the first time......

Yesterday, I took my new John Deere mower out for its first test drive. There is nothing like driving a tractor/John Deere. When I was a kid, I got to ride on tractors on my grandparents' farm. Lots of fun. My in-laws have a tractor or two, so I'll have to take my child out on a tractor so she can get that opportunity as well.

I did have to read the directions to figure out how the heck to run the thing, but once I got going, it was oh so nice. It has five speeds (and reverse). It has a nice mower deck with a side discharge. Comfy seat and handles like it's on rails (ok, maybe not on rails, but it handles pretty well)!

My main problem right now is figuring out the turning radius and what is the best way to mow the lawn. Every time you mow a given lawn, there's a certain pattern that you generally take to make sure that you cover the entire lawn as efficiently as possible. It's a very fine art mastered only by the greatest mowers of all time. I felt like I was going in circles a lot trying to get the entire yard mowed. I'm going to have to work on my pattern.

I still managed to get the yard mowed in about 40 minutes. Another bonus with a riding mower is that you don't get dirty like you do with a normal push mower. I just got off the mower and headed in to eat dinner with no shower needed. Definitely a plus for both me and my clothes/shoes that would usually end up grass-stained by the end of a trip around the lawn with a push mower.

The Plaza Art Fair........

A month or so ago, they held the 75th annual Plaza Art Fair in the famous Plaza here in Kansas City. It's a huge street fair dedicated solely to local, regional and some national artists. Most of the Plaza restaurants also have booths to sell food and promote their restaurant. Lots of food and lots of booze is available. Thousands of people come to the Art Fair every year.







We went down and had dinner with some family members on the Plaza and then headed out to look at the artwork. There's a wide variety of things you can buy at a WIDE variety of prices. You can get small painted tiles and wood sculptures for as little as $20-30. On the high end, you can literally spend tens of thousands of dollars on paintings, prints, sculptures and photos. It's certainly not a place you want to take any habitual shoppers with low impulse control.



People were walking their dogs all over the place. I saw several dogs wearing outfits. That's one of my big pet peeves. There should never be clothes on animals except for extreme examples (i.e. a hairless dog or cat in a winter climate). If animals were meant to wear clothes, God would not have given them fur coats that were already installed. I'll leave it at that.



There was one amusing point while I was taking some of these pictures. I saw a colorful booth with a lot of really nice paintings. I went ahead and took the following photograph......



My flash went off, lighting up the whole place. The artist was standing at the front of the booth, talking with some people. As soon as she saw me take the picture, she commented under her breath to one of her friends that she'd like to know why I was taking pictures of her paintings. Evidently, she had been drinking because her under-the-breath comment could have been heard from 5 miles away. One of the people she was talking with yelled out that 'it was much cheaper to get her paintings that way' and laughed at his comment. To some extent, it was true. Her paintings, while they were quite nice and bright, were severely overpriced. There was no way I was dropping that kind of cash on those paintings. I just chuckled as I walked by her. She gave me a glare the whole time. She's probably been surfing the net ever since then trying to find my photo. Well, there it is! You can rest assured that everyone now has access to your paintings!

You never know who you'll run into......

I went out to eat with my wife and in-laws last night. Spur of the moment thing. We decided to go to a restaurant in the North part of Kansas City. We sat down at a table and started some small talk about the new house, our baby on the way, etc.

After a little while, I happened to notice a couple of kids in a booth with their family. One was probably 3 or 4 and the other one was probably 6 months to a year old. I watched the kids climbing around the booth, talking loudly, whining when they wanted something, etc. Typically kid stuff. Nothing out of the ordinary. I've been watching kids for some time now in public places, ready to be a parent myself.

We ate our meal and my wife and father-in-law decided to split a dessert. As they were eating their dessert, I happened to lean back to stretch and looked over at the same booth where the kids were that I was watching. There was another woman that was in the booth that was blocked from my view before. I did a double take and realized that the mom of the kids had been obstructed from my view the whole time. The reason I did a double take? It was my ex-girlfriend.

We had dated for 3 years or so and then she eventually started dating another guy behind my back. The worst part was that she didn't have the guts to just come out and tell me. I actually was setting up a Valentine's day surprise for her and went over to see her mom while my girlfriend was gone. I laid out this elaborate plan to have flowers, stuffed animals, etc. in her room when she got back home on Valentine's Day. When I finished telling her mom my plans, her mom said, "You do know that (my girlfriend) is dating another guy now, right?"

It was pretty obvious to her mom that I didn't know. She felt really bad about the situation. Her mother always liked me and was always very nice to me whenever I came by their house. So, needless to say, I didn't bother surprising her on Valentine's day or any other day thereafter.

As much as I wanted to find out how her family and brothers were doing, I couldn't bring myself to go over and chat with her. My wife and her mother commented afterwards that she was drinking a lot during her meal. I'm not sure I really care. I'm actually glad I didn't notice her until the end of the meal. I would have felt uncomfortable the whole time.

That's the one time I was absolutely run over by a girlfriend. I didn't have any other bad breakups except for that one. I'm glad it happened because I met Mrs. Lime a few months later and the rest of the story couldn't have worked out any better.

Great day on the golf course yesterday......

My friend and I play a round of golf against his father-in-law and uncle every once in awhile. Our experienced (that's code for older than us) competitors get up for the big match. They play quite a bit more than my friend or I, so they definitely have a more consistant game.

My friend and I started off a bit slow. We were down two holes after four holes of play. We quickly won a couple of holes to put us right back in the game and get back to even. We went down one hole soon after that, but then evened it up after nine holes.

On the back 9, I caught fire. I hit 3 iron shots that acted like they were being pulled toward the hole. Two of them landed inside of 10 feet from the pin. The other one actually hit the flag on the fly and landed 3 foot from the hole! I was also driving quite well with my new driver and let my friend use the driver. It helped his accuracy and distance quite a bit. I think he's going to get a new driver for Christmas. We ended up winning the match by four or five holes.

Our experienced competitors did eventually find a way to try to win. They went into the clubhouse afterwards and found a rule in the rulebook that states that you can't use anyone else's clubs but your own. So they claimed victory based on a technical rule. I just waved at them and told them congrats. They chuckled at their find, but they knew they were soundly beaten on this day. I have no doubt they will be requesting a rematch in the near future.

And on the 7th day, he rested.......

It's been a busy week moving into our new home. We've still got boxes to unpack and rooms to finish setting up. I spent most of Friday and Saturday hanging up curtains and towel racks. I've become quite proficient at putting in drywall anchors. It's been a lot of work, but it's nice to have curtains finally up in a few of the rooms. I am taking the day off from working on the house to just relax for a day. It's a lot of work to put together a house.

It's actually pretty important to have curtains in a house that is as well insulated as this one. On sunny days, the temperature in the house can easily go up to 75 degrees without any heat despite the fact that it doesn't even reach 55 degrees outside. It's a welcome change from our old house where you could actually feel breezes in some rooms because of the drafty nature of the house.

We had a poker tourney at the house last night. We had 17 people show up. It was a good time and nice to have some normalcy around the house. It's nice to be in familiar surroundings again.

Belly Pics - Week 21

It's actually Week 23 now I believe, but the Belly Pics have been somewhat neglected because of the move into the new house. Should have a week 23 picture up today.

Birthday party at work......

The group of ladies that I work with have a potluck style lunch once a month. It's used to celebrate birthdays for that month. It's quite impressive I guess. They lay out a big spread of food, give out birthday cards and sing 'Happy Birthday' to the people with birthdays that month.

I, along with the other October birthday people, was crowned royalty for the day. I received a wonderfully fashioned paper crown made with only the finest paper products available. It included a velcro strip so you could make the crown fit correctly no matter how big your cranium was in circumference. Mine fit quite well and made me look like a king of the office cube world. The ladies had a tiara and feather boa to wear around for the day. I'm quite glad that they didn't purchase a feather boa for me. I'm thinking it wouldn't have looked so good on me.

The potluck dinner had a special setup to work with the Halloween theme. Everybody brought something to eat. They laid out their specific food dish in their cube. Then, when lunch time finally arrived, you had to go from cube to cube to get your food. It was kind of like trick-or-treating except it involved food instead of candy and you went from cube to cube rather than door to door. Some of the fine foods involved eyeball Jello, severed popcorn hands, green chocolate fondue, bat cookies and much, much more. The main thing I did learn from this potluck is that my co-workers have far too much time on their hands.

I will say that the ladies are very good cooks and that I ate far too much food. Thankfully, these parties only come along once a month. If the parties were any more frequent, it would probably be detrimental to my health.

Magic erasers.......

For those that haven't hit the supermarket or similar places recently, there is a new product that is simply God's gift to the world. It's called a 'magic eraser'. Several different companies make a version of the product, but at first glance, it looks like little more than a white sponge. But oh, it is so much more than that.

You take out the magic eraser and soak it in water. Then, simply wring it out and you're ready to go. I had a couple of places in my new house where there were black marks on the walls from various boxes and furniture being bumped into them during the move. I took the magic eraser and rubbed the mark. Voila! Mark is gone. I was amazed at how easily it removed the mark. Pretty sure I won't be without one of these in my house for a very long time.

I've been told that they also remove things like handprints and crayons from walls if children decide to make your home a bit more colorful. Given that I have a baby girl on the way, that is an excellent thing to know.

The move is complete!!!!!!!!

Thanks to some family members, friends, and a large crew of movers, the move into the new house is officially done. We still have a lot of unpacking to do, but it's good to be in a new house. It's going to rain most of today, so I'm going to have to figure out how to run my new lawn mower so I can get the lawn cut to a managable level.

I've got a couple of belly pics on the digital camera, but unfortunately, I haven't found the cord that I use to transfer the pictures to the computer. Once I find that, I'll have some belly pics up.

October 5th holds more significance that I thought.......

As I posted before, my birthday is today, October 5th. What I didn't know is that October 5th is the most common American birthday. More Americans claim October 5th as their birthday than any other day of the year. You're probably wondering why. I have the answer.

The number of days it takes to create a full-term baby from start to finish is 278 days. If you take that number and use a calendar to count back to figure out what day the baby was conceived, you will find that a baby born on October 5th was most likely conceived on December 31st (also known as New Year's Eve).

Yes, my friends. It appears that America tends to do a little bit more than drink champagne to celebrate the new year. Consider this your 'learned something new' moment of the day.

Shameless promotion that it is my birthday today......

Yes, that day has come again. I am now 32 years of age. That seems like a long time I suppose.

I have made 32 round trips around the Sun in my life. With Earth being 93 million miles away from the Sun, I can calculate how far I have traveled in my 32 years. The equation for one year would be 2(Radius)(Pi). So 2 * 93,000,000 * 3.141 = 584,226,000 miles. Taking that yearly number times 32 years means I have traveled 18,695,232,000 miles! Man! That's a lot of traveling. Worse yet, I spent all that time moving around only to find myself right back at the same spot in space that I started at in the first place!

Here's some other information. I have been alive.....

-- 11,688 days.
-- 280,512 hours.
-- 16,830,720 minutes.
-- 1,009,843,200 seconds (that's over one BILLION seconds for you keeping score at home).

That's really a lot of time. It makes everything seem so much worse to think I've been alive over 1 billion seconds. That also means that I'm traveling through space at roughly 18 miles a second! Geez, I thought my 270 HP car went fast! It has nothing on the Earth!

Your tax dollars at work........

The following was heard over the intercom system at my workplace yesterday......

Ladies and gentlemen,
The following announcement is a test of the intercom system in the building. If you are not able to hear this message, please contact the security desk at 999-555-1212. Thank you.

I'm sure you all can figure out the obviously ironic nature of the above announcement. I did note to myself after hearing this announcement that it's no wonder why comedians always have plenty of material. There are plenty of stupid things that happen all around us in daily life that keep the comedians gainfully employed and full of fresh ideas without them having to raise a finger.

The cheaper dozen........

As most people who have gone through this before know very well, a pregnant wife has certain needs that only a pregnant wife can have. One of those realities involves the cravings for certain kinds of food. Yesterday, I ran over to pick up some groceries. I needed to pick up some easy-to-prepare foods since we're moving this coming weekend and have packed away many of our kitchen dishes/pans. I got several different things that would be easy for us to heat up.

As I was going through the bakery area, I happened to notice several things that were on sale (since I'm a penny pincher and always looking for a bargain). I noticed that one of the sales was on one dozen jumbo chocolate-chip cookies. Now over the past couple of months, I haven't bought my wife flowers because we don't have any vases (they're all in storage). So I thought since I haven't got her one dozen roses recently, how about getting her one dozen JUMBO chocolate chip cookies!

I took home the food and set it down on the cabinet. I put it all away while Mrs. Lime was taking a nap. After about an hour, I went into the kitchen and grabbed one of the cookies. I sat down next to Mrs. Lime and started eating it.

Mrs. Lime: (with wide eyes) Is that a cookie?!?!?!

Me: No.

Mrs. Lime: Did you get cookies?!?!?!

Me: No. (takes another bite of the cookie)

Mrs. Lime: Where are they? Are there any left for me?

Me: No.

Mrs. Lime: I'm going to go get one!

Mrs. Lime retrieved a cookie from the kitchen, moving quite quickly in the process. From the kitchen, I heard 'Oooohhhh, they're BIG cookies!'. Of course, this is very important because there is much more guilt in eating two regular size cookies than one big one despite the fact that they probably contain the same amount of cookie ingredients. She sat down on the couch next to me with a big grin on her face. 5 seconds later, she quickly stands back up and states, "I need to heat up my cookie!".

She quickly walked back into the kitchen and put the cookie in the microwave. Casanova, our dog, was not to happy about this move by her. He is afraid of the microwave and runs to the opposite end of the apartment as soon as someone opens the door to put something into the microwave. He doesn't like popping noises and knows that the cooking food makes popping noises when it gets hot. The heated cookie did at least make the apartment smell pretty good for a little bit.

Mrs. Lime came back with her heated cookie and smiled through every bite. Hmmmmm, while the roses are better for her, the cookies seemed to bring her the most happiness. Maybe I've been buying the wrong dozen at the grocery store all along.

Fun crowd at the poker room.......

I went and played some poker on Saturday night. It was a good night to go, because the place was packed full of race fans since the NASCAR race was in town this weekend. To a poker player, that's usually an indication that there's going to be a lot of bad players at the tables.

I honestly played very well and still ended up about $10 down. Sometimes that happens when you play poker. I made two great laydowns that would have cost me a lot of money had I not made the good play early. I won a couple of decent sized pots when I did have a good hand. I played about 6 hours, so $2.00 a hour for a night of entertainment is certainly not a bad deal.

The NASCAR race fans brought in a great group of people. Generally, everyone was very nice. No yelling or irritating players. Just lots of people there to have some fun. There were a couple of ladies at the table as well, which always seems to make the mood of the table a bit better. One guy hit a great card to beat a good hand that one of the ladies had. In a sarcastic manner, I quickly chastised him for doing that to the lady at the table. I told him that I hoped that her family didn't find out what he had done. That got a good chuckle from the table, including the poor lady who had just suffered a brutal loss on the final card.

I later did the same thing to an older lady. I sheepishly turned over the bad news and apologized to her. She just smiled and said 'no problem'. Thankfully, she won a bit pot on the next hand. I commented that she won the previous money back and then some. She smiled and happily raked in the chips. No matter how many times you play poker, it's always a fun feeling to rake in those chips. It's that feeling that always keeps people coming back for more.

I got to know a guy next to me pretty well. He was probably around 50 years of age. He was a tight player, so I didn't have to worry about him too much in regards to the game. Basically, if he was in the pot, I was out unless I had a monster. We chatted about the football game that was on the TV. We talked about his kids who are now in college. His wife was playing at another table and would come by the table periodically to check up on him and see how he was doing. She was a character. She wore a big, brown cowboy hat and talked with a pretty heavy southern accent. She seemed like she would be a lot of fun.

I asked the guy what he does for a living. He said he was retired, but that he used to work for a refinishing company. They would work on new, old, and antique furniture to restore or complete its finish. He then said that his job is the reason he's dying. Evidently, there's a lot of toxic stuff flying around those types of companies. He said when he was younger, he was stupid and didn't take proper measures to ensure his safety from the dust and toxins that were in the air. He now has liver cancer that has spread to other places in his body. The doctors have given him a month or two to live.

There's really not much you can say other than 'sorry to hear that' when someone tells you something like that. It's pretty obvious that he did want to talk about it, because he was the one to bring it up. So I just let him talk. He actually played pretty well, had a good time, and won some money. Good for him. Eventually, his wife lost all her money, so she came over to let him know. She was willing to let him keep playing, but I think he was getting pretty tired. I wished him well and told him it was nice to meet him. Hopefully, the doctors are wrong about his diagnosis. He's a good guy and deserves the best. Unfortunately, the fate of people doesn't always match the quality of the individual.

Dead man walking update......

For those that might have missed the previous entry.......

http://limelicker.blogspot.com/2006/09/dead-man-walking.html

I now have an update to the dead man's tendencies. In addition to having a daily food habit that would clog normal people's arteries 3 times over, it would appear that he takes his habits to a whole new level. He also has a chain smoking habit just to make sure that the rest of his body doesn't have time to recover from his eating habits.

I think two feet in the grave would probably be an understatement.