Thursday, June 29, 2006

Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Sunday, June 25, 2006

Montgomery Gentry

The wife is a big fan of the boys AKA Montgomery Gentry. Their music speaks to alot of different people. I can listen to most of it as, to me, it's not really country. More of southern rock - like Skynrd. She had come across a pair of front row seats (at slightly more than retail) so off to Rockford we went.

The part of Rockford that the show was in is a business district. Weekends are quiet. Spooky quiet. We got there around1:00 pm and found nothing to do. Walked around a bit and decided to get a beer.



J-Bears is a nice small bar run by a die-hard Bears fan. $1.50 drafts were nice. Had a few and decided to walk around some more. Turns out the boys were doing a sound check so we kinda slid in between a couple of trucks and watched. The MG people didn't care. They just asked us to stay off to the side and be quiet. The wife was really happy.



After an hour or so one of the event staff kicked us out. The wife noted that all the men that had asked us what we were doing there acepted the fact that one of the crew told us we could stay. The one woman to come by kicked us out.

As we left we ran into a couple from central Wisconsin. They too had come early expecting to find things to do. We pointed the way to J-Bears and off they went. We headed back to the car to get something and ran into 2 girls from Madison and another group from Addision. Talked for a minute and off we went to bar. Beer and Pizza soon ensued.

One of the girls from Madison, Kimberly, had won a meet and greet with the boys. The wife was really jealous but wished her well. For some reason Kim asked for our cell numbers.

We left the bar to go get an umbrella from the car as a drizzle was starting up. Ran into the girls again and they asked if we were headed back to the bar. Sure - why not?

At the bar Kimberly pulled the envelope out and was showing it to the wife. She asked her to listen closely as the instructions were very specific. It took a second for it to register. Kimberly gave the wife the meet and greet pass. What an Angel!



Kimberly is on the right. Turns out they are huge MG fans and have met them a few times. A random act of kindness for a total stranger. Made the wifes day. Mine too as I'm not going to be able to top this for the rest of year so no more shopping!

After we got into the park the wife headed off to the meet and greet. She said the boys were total gentleman. Eddie remembered her from the sound check and seemed upset that she had been kicked out when we being quiet. After a few autographs and pictures it was over.



The opening act was Paul Thorn. Great performance and excellent songs. Ended up buying his CD/DVD (watching the DVD right now). If he shows up in your area go see him.



The park where the show is held is right along the Rock River. Lots of boats came by to listen. Can't see anything but no doubt the music was good.



In case you're wondering - its the Stars and Guitars festival



And then it started...















Two hours later it was over. Excellent show. It seemed as if Eddie recognized the wife as he looked right at her and sang to her a couple of times.

Outside there were a couple of bikers on custom Harleys awaiting autographs. I don't think they got them. Shame as the bikes looked as nice as the girls...



And in case you don't know who sponsors Montgomery Gentry - take a guess.



Headed for home around 11:30. Talked to a cop and asked the best way home. He advised not taking the way we had come as it was, as he referred to it, a part of Hell. Instead we took Business 20, found a McDonalds to get a shake (one of 5 we passed before getting to the Tollway) and headed home.

A pretty good day.

Late night



The wife managed to score a couple of front row center (well slightly right of center) seats for one of her favorite bands, Montgomery Gentry. A little bit out of the way in Rockford but nothing terrible. Drove up early thinking there would stuff to do but other than hit the local bar, J-Bears (highly recommended), there was nothing. So we hit the bar :-)

Great show. Back home around 1:00am (real late for old people like up). The tickets were expensive but worth the money.

More pics later...

Friday, June 23, 2006

A crazy day

Woke up early and went to work early - figuring I'd get out early. Ha - no such luck. A two hour meeting, office move planning, spec'ing out new servers, the usual fun stuff. By the time I got out and on the road people were doing strange things.

A Toyota Highlander went through a red light at 50mph. I not talking as the light turned red. I mean traffic was flowing through the intersection when the Highlander went through. Farther up the road a Subaru Legend was driving, well, slow. And changing lanes randomly. Get up to a train crossing. Gates are down and no train. Turned around and went through Bartlett. Got passed by a Chevy Colorado doing ~50 in a residential area. Get back onto a highway and a dump truck decides that he'd rather be in my lane. Brakes and horn were functioning well :-)

It was nice to get home...

Thursday, June 22, 2006

Relay for Life 2006

Thing2 and I were there again walking with PJ's team - Carrie's Choir



One of the fundraisers is 'selling' a section of sidewalk.





Our team is in the background of this shot. A little smaller than last year but motivated just the same.



Lumanaria are another of the fund raisers. Over 1500 of them lined the track.


This is my Aunt Hazel. Died at 96 from breast cancer.


Jacki is one of the wife's sisters. She's a nine year survivor of metastatic breast cancer. She had been given a 20% chance of surviving 5 years! Helen is my mom. She died in 1985 from colon cancer. Thing1, born 6 weeks later, would have been her first grandchild.


Linda was the wife's other sister. She died from metastatic breast cancer 11 years ago.

But relay is not just about the dead. It's about the living. Survivors walk the first lap. There were a couple of stragglers that were a 100 yards behind but they made it.



After walking began the fun started. Mr Relay - a very popular event was first. These fine 'men' raised over $1800.00 in 40 minutes.



The winner was surprising to say the least.



This beautiful young lady had a interesting way to raise money. She was going to cut her hair for "Locks of Love" which provides hair to make wigs for those under 18 that are undergoing chemo and radation therapy. These therapies tend to make your hair fall out. For guys - not a big deal. For the young ladies it can lower their self image which can increase their recovery time. Locks of Love works to prevent that. To try and raise money at relay she auctioned off the cutting of the hair. The high bidder would get to do the work.





I'm trying to talk Thing2 into doing this. Her hair grows so fast.

Around 10:00pm they do a slide show with all the names that are on the lumanaria. PJ went with her daughter and Thing2 and went to watch the slides. I decided to sit in from of my mom's lumanaria and just think about her. 21 years this year. It's been a long time. Cancer sucks.

We'll be back next year. Rumor has it we'll be spending the night.

Clouds

The wife called me at work and asked if I was watching the clouds. She works about 25 miles north of where I work and was looking south. Since my office faces south I went around to the north side of the building and found these. Kind of like sand dunes in the sky.



16 Blocks

Watched this movie a couple of days ago. Decent storyline with some interesting twists. Directed by Richard Donner so there had to be his usual anti-gun poster:



The hero, an aging, drunk, seemingly corrupt cop Jack Mosley played by Bruce Willis, even manages to jam his Glock.





It's worth the rental. Plenty of action. Good ending.

My office mate for the day

One of my coworkers has her daughter here today. They are off to do some fun things sponsored by the company so I get to watch Roscoe.

Dude

Your Dell is on fire

Wednesday, June 21, 2006

AOL

is Evil. Not as evil as Sony (CD Rootkits, DVD copy protection that can hurt your DVD-Rom,etc) but close.

I passed 8th Grade Math




You Passed 8th Grade Math



Congratulations, you got 10/10 correct!

Modern Web Design



IE isn't as bad as it used to be but Microsoft needs to stop extending open standards and sites need to stop implementing these extensions on sites located on the public internet.

Save the web (and your computer if it's running Windows). Use Firefox!

Tuesday, June 20, 2006

Monday, June 19, 2006

Democrats pursuing Fluff

I know that the Republican party does it's share of stupid things but Fluffernutters?

Leave Fluff alone!

Via GOP Bloggers

Ben Roethlisberger Replica Motorcycle Helmet

Only on Ebay.

Thanks Tam

Friday, June 16, 2006

Thursday, June 15, 2006

My Kind of Judge

When I was on jury duty last year I would have loved for the Judge to do this. The defense attorneys were just asking for it...



I'd rather have a

Z06 than a AMG CLK-GTR.

Steve gets no respect

Steve Ballmer that is

Monday, June 12, 2006

It could be true

God made man before woman so as to give him time to think of an answer for her first question.

Wal-Mart Troubles

For the record - my wifes maiden name is Reed... Judging from her family - it's probably a relative. On the other hand - I did a few of those things back in my K-Mart days

--

My wife received this letter from Walmart!

Dear Mrs. Reed,

Over the past six months, your husband, Mr. Jim Reed has been causing quite a commotion in our store. We cannot tolerate this type of behavior and have considered banning the entire family from shopping in any of our stores. We have documented all incidents on our video surveillance equipment. Three of our clerks are attending counseling from the trouble your husband has caused. All complaints against Mr. Reed have been compiled and are listed below.

Wal-Mart Complaint Department MEMO

Re: Mr. Jim Reed - Complaints:

15 Things Mr. Reed has done while his spouse is shopping:


  1. June 15: Took 24 boxes of condoms and randomly put them in people's carts when they weren't looking.
  2. July 2: Set all the alarm clocks in Housewares to go off at 5-minute intervals.
  3. July 7: Made a trail of tomato juice on the floor leading to the restrooms.
  4. July 19: Walked up to an employee and told her in an official tone, 'Code 3' in housewares..... and watched what happened.
  5. August 4: Went to the Service Desk and asked to put a bag of M&M's on layaway.
  6. September 14: Moved a 'CAUTION - WET FLOOR' sign to a carpeted area.
  7. September 15: Set up a tent in the camping department and told other shoppers he'd invite them in if they'll bring pillows from the bedding department.
  8. September 23: When a clerk asks if they can help him, he begins to cry and asks, "Why can't you people just leave me alone?"
  9. October 4: Looked right into the security camera; used it as a mirror, and picked his nose.
  10. November 10: While handling guns in the hunting department, asked the clerk if he knows where the anti-depressants are.
  11. December 3: Darted around the store suspiciously loudly humming the "Mission Impossible" theme.
  12. December 6: In the auto department, practiced his "Madonna look" using different size funnels.
  13. December 18: Hid in a clothing rack and when people were browsing through, yelled "PICK ME!", "PICK ME!"
  14. December 21: When an announcement came over the loud speaker, he assumed the fetal position and screamed "NO! NO! It's those voices again!!!!"


    (And; last, but not least!)


  15. December 23: Went into a fitting room, shut the door and waited a while; then, yelled, very loudly, "There is no toilet paper in here!"

Thursday, June 08, 2006

Best use of a bad song

Sabotage

Way to go Allahpundit.

Thing1 thinks Boom by P.O.D. would have worked too.

Ding Dong - al-Zarqawi's Dead!

So many excellent posts out there (see Blackfive and Instapundit) but the zoomie who dropped the bomb has a even bigger story to tell now.

He took out al-Zarqawi on Scott Adams birthday! What a great present!

Wednesday, June 07, 2006

Tuesday, June 06, 2006

June the 6th, 1944

D-Day. The beginning of the end of war in the European Theater. Blackfive has a nice collection of posts.

Saturday, June 03, 2006

Poodlize your Doberman

My sister Maggie has two Dobermans - Clay and Gracie. Clay was found abandoned on the side of the road - abused and neglected (why anyone would abuse an animal that can rip your arm off I'll never understand) and has turned into a sweet, lovable, and incredibly protective member of her family. Grace was adopted from the Tennesee Valley Dobe Rescue. A bit bigger than Clay, Grace is an attention hound. If you try and ignore her she'll sit on your foot and lean into you until you come to her way of thinking and give her some attention. Then she'll lay in your lap to keep you all to herself.

Some folks think that dogs like Dobermans are bad. (Personally I think it's the owners who are bad and need to be put down but thats me) Anyways if you have a Dobe or one of the other persecuted breeds there may be a way to get them out for a walk without scaring anyone.

Poodle disguise for Dobermans

I'd rather just take Clay and Gracie for a walk just as they are. According to my sister walking two Dobes can clear the sidewalk really fast. :-)

My kind of 4x4

Four AMD64 cores and four GPUs? Yes!

Even better if the mobo, cpus, and graphics cards could be had for under $1,000.00...

If people evolved from apes, why are there still apes?

More at Planck's Constant. Via GM Roper.

Carnival of Cordite #61

Over at Gullyborg's.

Glad I decided to see if anything was new at Tam's as Gully didn't send me any mail this week... :-(

Friday, June 02, 2006

Garden Flood

We have a garden club where I work. For a small annual fee one gets a 20x40 plot. Since this is my first year I havn't done much to mine yet. Just some vegtables and sunflowers. I had set up a sprinkler and timer to keep things watered but the supply side of my hose decided to split. Since my plants are in raised beds - well I have a bit of a flood.

At least I don't have to water this weekend...

I love Content Inspection

Content Inspection is used by email filtering appliances to keep "bad" words from being seen in the email of the site using the appliance. I've been in a discussion about some problems I'm seeing at work regarding a upgrade of our Windows 2000 Active Directory Domain to Windows Server 2003. I sent a message earlier today that had the word crap in it. Here's what I got back:


    The xxxx IS Content Screening and Inspection system has quarantined the following message because it contains inappropriate content. If you believe this message is legitimate, please contact XXXXXX Service Cenre on +xx (x)xx xxx xxx we will arrange for the message to be released.

    Expression Content:
    Script Profanity List (English) Triggered in Body
    Expression: crap Triggered 3 times weighting 6


What a crappy piece of software!

Thursday, June 01, 2006

Something to make me smile

Filmmaker Moore sued by Iraq war veteran

I hope that Sgt. Damon gets every penny. Mikey should be able to afford 85 mil.

AV Software

From a message on the NTSysAdmin mailing list

    CA EZ-Antivirus runs on servers and is free for a year when you sign up through Microsoft.

And in a reply to that message

    CA?! I would rather get a virus. Would be less painful.


I miss VMS

Ten Things

You Can Do To Save The Planet