Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens

Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens

Brown paper packages tied up with strings

These are a few of my favorite things

Cream colored ponies and crisp apple streudels

Doorbells and sleigh bells and schnitzel with noodles

Wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings

These are a few of my favorite things

Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes

Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes

Silver white winters that melt into springs

These are a few of my favorite things

When the dog bites

When the bee stings

When I’m feeling sad

I simply remember my favorite things

And then I don’t feel so bad

Had to get some cheap red wine for the chili - and picked up a couple “okay” bottles as well, and by “okay” I am rating purley on price at this point. Once back home I arranged it so I had 3 glasses with labels on the bottom that I couldn’t see. I mixed them up, then had SuzShe mix them up and we tasted each and took some notes. Our opinions were for the most part identical. The real game was “which is the cab” – and we both failed. We both knew what 3 wines we were tasing, but not what glass held which. Here are the results.

Results weren’t really definitive, except perhaps the order. It got me thinking that if I could devise a system for tasting 2-3 wines at a time and arranging them in order – I could use the results to have a complete list of how the wines compare to my taste. Always having 2 or 3 “standards” that most wines fall around – the complete list could be ordered with a high degree of accuracy. This is something I must discuss with “The Doctor.” It could lead to “adjustment tastings” where wines that aren’t fitting with the statistics are rated in a special tasting.

I was about to use the wine chiller to get them to the right temperatures – but the Yellow Tail came in a big bottle that wouldn’t fit in the chiller. I am, however, chilling the Kendal Jackson as I type this.

Was able to score tickets to the ALCS games 1 & 2 at Fenway. The first game was a triumph and a lesson in how to enjoy Fenway. CCS & I had great seats, and were able to get to the standing room Green Monster as well. We we’re briefly on TV wearing Bud Light boxes on our head, in homage to Jonothan Papplebon. I believe this might be my biggest moment of fame – 5 seconds on national television. SuzShe missed us on TV, but I was able to show it to her later.

Game two was a disappointing extra inning loss that didn’t end until 2am. It was close to a $100 baby sitting bill by the time we finally got home. Getting the tickets for this game was an adventure as well. I bought them from the phone sales line. I was given a hint that they were on sale, and called. Had to redial through a busy signal maybe 30 times, then was on hold for 15min and after being told I could get 2 bleachers I gave them my credit card info only to be told I couldn’t buy the tickets becuase I already had tickets to game #6. He told me I could have someone else buy them and change the pick-up name. I would have to call back to do this – another 30-40 redials, on hold 20min this time, and I used a colleague’s credit card. After buying 2 bleachers I tried to change the name only to be told I wasn’t allowed to change it to my name beucase I’d already bought tickets.

So heading into the game (with CCS+) we didn’t know if we’d get the tickets. Waited in will-call for 10min or so, and tried to pretend I was my colleague when I got to the window. Ticket guy asked me for ID, I said I forgot it. He looked up the tickets – and asked me the address on the credit card. I kicked myself – becuase I thought about calling my colleague to memorize his address – but I didn’t. So the first guy didn’t give me the tickets. SuzShe and I were thinking we had to watch the game at a local bar, but I went to ticket services and laid it all on the line… the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. The guy there stopped me mid sentence with a “Yeah, hold on…” and low and behold – he pressed a button and my tickets came out of a little printer. Oh joy of joys! The night turned from a miserable failure with a bunch of money lost (tickets + baby sitter + gas) into a night at Fenway with my favorite co-fans.  Would have been more fun telling that story if the game had turned out better.

I put my business card (personal one) in one of those fish bowls that say, “Win a free lunch” a few weeks back. Today I got a call from a guy from an investment firm saying I’d won a free lunch for me and 10 other people. I was phychsed for about 2 min until he explained he’d be giving us a “presentation while the food was being prepared” which is most of a meal – actually, it’s the ONLY part of a restaurant meal where you can talk to your friends. Another hitch – everyone had to be over 21 – so no kids. No way I’m gonna get a baby sitter so someone can talk me into investing in something.

Suzy’s company Hoyle Tanner posted a quick mention that she ran a relay leg of the Burlington Vermont Marathon.

We were very close to the front of this 100 car pile up. The movie below shows how close were were in two seperate collisions. Sorry my flash skills aren’t that great – I only spent a few min putting the video together.

(Click here to see the movie)

I’m wondering if this should just be a weekly segment – a list of the things that went wrong with the technology today. Got 2 in the past 24hrs. First was the server I host the new Wiki on blew a power supply… about 3 hrs after I sent an email introducing the technology to the beta audience… so the email goes out, and the site goes down and don’t I look amazing.

2nd problem is the dell is fried again – blue screens this time. Smells like bad memory, but both 512M chips produce similar results. The people on the support chat site are pretty good though – minimizing the painful troubleshooting steps. I’m glad we have MoJo pack, so she can use my machine. I think I’m gonna cough up the $50 for it.

SuzShe’s computer blew the USB controller this morning. Probably the new iPod trying to charge from it or something. Tried to call Dell Support but was told it was over a 10 min wait by the telephone agent. Decided to try to Dell support Chat – and Jason B. had me try a few things and then scheduled a motherboard replacement. I’m glad we have a 1yr warrenty on the system. I asked where he was and he said he was in the US.

Yesterday I had a problem with Turbo Tax Online edition and logging in. It sent me to some security quesion page that I could not escape from no matter what I did. I got their chat support working too and she recognized the problem and said their engineer is working on it. I asked her where she was and she said Singapore.

The mosquito r/c helicopter I got for xMas has a problem with one of the motors – and I don’t even know where to begin getting support for that.

My MythTV system still has a few problems like volume control and I’m not happy with how it’s using disk space. Again – no idea where to get support.

My sister was having problems with disk space on her laptop, and had a bunch of questions on how to manage the volume of pictures etc. she generates. Eventually led her down the road of a network storage device. Her original plan was to get a file server on her network. She’s had a server before becuase her internet connection used to be a satillite that wouldn’t just “plug into a router” and needed a server. I had to administer this system so I’m glad I got her to do something I hopefully don’t have to support.

I suppose there’s something to learn here – but other than “Get off the Grid” I have no ideas.

IMG_9114
Originally uploaded by M@.

Suzy and her Mom went to the Tuesday Red Sox vs. A’s game. It ended in a walk off Red Sox home run which sent the crowd into a frenzy. During the game she bought me a raffle ticket to maybe win the world series rings they are raffling. Non-MASS people have to buy the tickets in person.

Remy and Suzy
Originally uploaded by M@.

At the Red Sox opening day game this year we were hanging out on Yawkee way and ran into Remmy. He was getting his picture taken with lots of people, and when Suzy got next to him I yelled, “Remy! Hug my wife, please!” So he did, and I think we got a slightly better smile from him. He was very nice to everyone.