Saturday, February 24, 2007

The Fires of Mortor?

Saw this over at The Thinklings. Had me laughing aloud.

Friday, February 23, 2007

Run Away

I went this morning and got my tickets to see Monty Python's SPAMalot at Dallas Summer Musicals.



Local radio station 98.7 KLUV was onsite at the DSm Box Office with show-related games to play. I pinned the limb on the Black Knight and won an Official SPAMalot cap.

My wife and I will be going to see the show. It will be the first time she has gone with me to see a professional production.

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

The Infamous Gatorade Debate

There has been an ongoing debate about the color of Lemon-Lime Gatorade over at The Thinklings. According to WikiPedia, the color is "Lime," so I'm putting the color "Lime" against various background colors.



This is a test of the color Lime against a green background.




This is a test of the color Lime against a yellow background.




This is a test of the color Lime against a "web lime" background.




This is a test of the color Lime against a lime green background.

Monday, February 19, 2007

Comics on the Web

I like comic strips. Back when I read the paper almost everyday, the Comics was always the first section I'd go to, and I read most of them. Now, I read most of the comics I want to read online. An internet friend posted a link to a great site for comics. The Comic Slurper allows you to select multiple comics that will all appear on one page.

One comic that doesn't appear on the list, but hopefully will soon because I submitted it for consideration, is Casey and Scotty, which is back from hiatus. Make sure you check that one out.

Friday, February 16, 2007

Life Preserver

"Drowning Man" from Charlie Peacock's album The Secret of Time played on my iPod today. If you are a Christian and can hear this song and not feel convicted for not sharing the Gospel as often as you should, I would suggest that you might need to do a little soul-searching.

Everytime I hear this lyric, I know that I make lame excuses for not sharing the Truth with everyone I meet.

You don't ask a drowning man
If he wants to be saved
When you know he's sinking down
Down beneath the crashing waves

Betrayal wears two faces
Both easy to explain
One is what you say and do
To bring another human pain
When you refuse to act
Though you know the good to do
When you refuse to speak what's right
You've worn the face of number two


©1990 EMI Blackwood Music Inc./Andi Beat Goes On Music/Sparrow Song (a div. of The Sparrow Corp.)

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

One of those Days

I had to go to the Post Office to get something in the mail this morning. First, I thought it opened at 8:00, but it didn't open until 8:30. Thankfully, I had only gotten there at about 8:25. Then, after waiting for them to open up the window area, I asked if they had any Flat Rate Priority Mail boxes. I needed to mail some folio-sized books. They had the more squared boxes, but not the ones I needed, so I was going to have to go to another P.O. The most logical choice was the Dallas Main Post Office on Interstate 30 just west of downtown Dallas.

I-30 was shut down right before the downtown canyon, thus causing delay and diverting me out of the way.

At work, we are unable to locate a file on a case that is set for Announcement today. The defense Attorney is coming up to see me, but he probably won't be willing to work out a deal because I can't show him our evidence.

Friday, February 09, 2007

I'm your Handyman







I just spent the evening putting up curtains and a valance. We had bought other curtains from the JCPenney catalog, but they weren't what we thought they would be. Jody loaded up the girls Wednesday and met me at the JCPenney store at Town East Mall, and we shopped for new curtains. We finally found some that both of us liked, so we bought the curtain panels, but not the valance panels. We wanted to make sure we liked them before spending the rest of the money.

We hung the curtains on the rod I had hung for the previous set, and Jody said she wanted the valances. I went back to JCPenney Thursday to pick them up. Today, I dropped by Lowe's and got a rod for the curtains because we needed to use the one I hung before for the valance After wrangling with the level, the ladder, and the drill, I finally got it all up. We're gonna paint the wall to match the yellow in the curtains. Most folks probably would have painted before hanging curtains, but that would have been too easy.

Thursday, February 08, 2007

The Taxman Cometh

My 2006 Tax Return is in the mail. Thanks to the four calvinatorettes and the Child Tax Credit and the Additional Child Tax credit, we'll be getting a refund large enough to pay off my current car.

After I get that one paid off, I'm really wanting to replace it. Watch this space for further news on that front.

Monday, February 05, 2007

Marathon Reading Sessions

Word came out this week that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will be released at Midnight on July 21, 2007. Melissa, John & Sue from PotterCast issued this week's Blog Challenge in Episode #75, which was released Sunday. This week's challenge is for listeners to predict how long it will take them to read Deathly Hallows in its entirety.

I believe it is reasonable to assume that Deathly Hallows will be somewhere in the neighborhood of the length of books 4, 5, & 6. So, extrapolating from my experience with those books, I should be able to come up with a fairly accurate guess as to how long it will take me to read the ultimate entry in the Harry Potter series. When I bought Half-Blood Prince right at Midnight when it came out, I took it straight home and read for about an hour before going to sleep. When I woke up Saturday morning, I embarked on an all-day reading session, taking breaks only to eat, help take care of my four daughters, and take care of other necessary functions. I read past midnight, finally finishing at around 1:30 a.m. Clock time from purchase to completion was 25 1/2 hours, but actual reading time was less than twelve.

This time around, my daughters are all older, so I shouldn't have to take as many breaks to help with them. Meals don't have to take a long time, and reading can actually be accomplished during some of the other "necessary business," so there's no reason to believe that I couldn't finish the final book in about nine or ten hours if I could go uninterrupted. HOWEVER, there's a chance I might be in production for a musical with Garland Summer Musicals at the release date. In fact, I may be performing in Opening Night of Thoroughly Modern Millie on the evening of July 20th. If that's the case, I'll be more tired on the 21st, and I'll have to be back at the theatre by 7:00 p.m. for the 8 o'clock curtain. That would mean if I wasn't finished by about 6 p.m., I would have to put the book down for the night's performance. I've never been the type who can read something unrelated to the current show in the middle of a performance.

Also complicating matters is that if I am in that show, I won't be able to pick up my copy as early as I might have otherwise.

So, what does this all mean? I'm not sure, but if forced to guess, I'd say that I will probably get Deathly Hallows finished before I have to leave the house for the theatre. Hey, the forced deadline might even make me read faster.

My prediction is that I will have the book finished no later than 6:00 p.m. on July 21, 2007. Total reading time will be no more than ten hours. It would be fun to be at the performance that night and torture any fellow HP fans by telling them I have already finished and teasing them that I might spoil the ending for them. I'd never actually do that, but it would be funny to see how many people go screaming out of the green room with their fingers in their ears.

Saturday, February 03, 2007

Hillary and Oil

I actually had somebody tell me this week that Hillary Clinton is not a Liberal, but a Moderate. I scoffed, but this person really believed it.

Just in case there's anybody else out there who has bought into Hillary's recent "move to the center," check out this blog entry over at TheVanguard.org.

Make sure you watch the clip of Hillary's speech. The clip is only about 30 seconds, but it speaks volumes.

Friday, February 02, 2007

Looking for a Quick Way to Lose Weight?

No, I'm not talking about any miracle pills or radical diets. From yesterday morning to this morning, I lost 2.5 pounds. How did I accomplish this amazing feat, you ask. As I mentioned here, and my wife blogged about here and here, all four Calvinatorettes have been sick in the past week.

I could feel my body trying to fight it off for a few days, but Thursday shortly after lunch, I realized that succumbing was inevitable. I came home from work and laid in bed for a while, but eventually I did get sick. I had one other bout about three hours later. After that, I didn't have to make any more urgent trips to the bathroom, but I couldn't sleep well. I had a fever and body aches. I was a little delirious.

I stayed home from work today and got some extra rest and sleep. It appears that this was nothing more than a 24 hour virus because I'm feeling tremendously better tonight.