Bored with MS Paint

After staring at the drab front of the house for a while; I realize changes are needed. Where the money comes from for the changes?? Who cares! A man can dream right?? Here is my rough mock up of my desired front.


(don't act like your not impressed with my art skills)


What do you think?? I've always been fond of the black roof, black shutters and red door look. Most of these items are to be trusted with a capable professionals so they will be along way off. But just thinking about it makes me feel productive; just so long as I dont think about the bombzone in the dining room.

Is my crackberry going to give me tumors??

Listen, I love my mobile phones. They are fun little gadgets that can amuse us and also be a vital link to the outside world. As a household with no home phone, my crack is my lifeline to all my friends and family. But . . . is this little guy trying to kill me?

So innocent looking isn't it?

Well lets dig in and find out.

Radiation levels in phones and their effect on people is debatable to say the least. Lets not get into that whole argument. I will just give you the facts. The fact is the FCC tests every single model phone before it hits the market. They perform tests and assign a SAR rating (Specific Absorption Rate) to each phone. Take this blurb from CNET:

SAR, is "a way of measuring the quantity of radio frequency (RF) energy that is absorbed by the body." For a phone to pass FCC certification and be sold in the United States, its maximum SAR level must be less than 1.6 watts per kilogram

Given this; you would want as low of a number as possible to that mini antenna stuck to your head right?? Apparently not me! I checked up on my trusty Blackberry Curve (8330) and its rating is a whopping 1.54, 6th highest rating of ALL phones on the market! Whoa momma; talk about a shocker. Being that I am convinced that mobile phones do cause serious effects, this is troubling. Will I end up ditching the crack for safer pastures?? Probably. But that is more from my obsession with phones in general.


Just something to think about my friends the next time you are chatting up friends endlessly on your mobile. Here are some of the phones my faithful readers use for comparison sakes:

Iphone


Original - 0.974
3G - 1.38
3GS - 0.79


Blackberry Storm



0.5



Samsung Intensity





0.727



Time to ditch my trusty Curve! But to where? Time will tell . . .

Merry New Year!

Ahhh . . . New Years Eve, my favorite. What other night of the year can you enjoy five hours of the Three Stooges?? Easily the best, most quotable tv show ever made (sorry Seinfeld, you are a close second).

The Stooges Marathon has been around since I was old enough to remember. It’s an institution, especially in my family. If you can’t recall and recite massive amounts of Stooges lines you are missing out on inside jokes and general camaraderie between the men folk of the family. I am getting away from the point; but I do have 2 beefs with the current implementation of the marathon.

1) The spacing of episodes

Back in the days they used to cram 2 episodes into a 30 minute show on Saturday mornings. The most recent marathons have been creeping to the 1 episode per 30 minute timespan. This isn’t for lack of material though. From 1934-1947 they made 97 episodes with the A-Team of Moe, Larry & Curly. After Shemp took over they cranked out another 77 episodes from 1947-1956. 174 episodes is more than enough to give me more than one every 30 minutes. I can live with the above. This leads me to the dreaded Number 2 . . .

2) The Andelmans



I am sure they are great guys and fun to be around yada yada yada but they are such hams on camera that it makes it brutal to enjoy my beloved Stooges. Their segments are waaaay too long and its all about them. Stop pushing all your Phantom Gourmet propaganda on me when I’m hammering Chinese food and mixed drinkees. I want my hosts/hostesses to keep the jibber jabber to a minimum; unless of course you are talking ABOUT the Stooges. Give me my man Dan Justin any day of the week. These guys have made my Tivo worth every penny.

But I do not have to worry about the hams this year! My new best friend AMC is rolling out a marathon of their own. 5 hours on Channel 38 or whatever you call yourselves these days? HA! AMC is cranking out 23 hours of Nyuks starting at 7am this morning. Only a knucklehead would watch the other guys. Enjoy and have a great New Year Year.



As a salute to AMC, here are some classic quotes:



Curly: “"Let's play post office."
Woman: "That's a kid's game."
Curly: "Not the way I play it."

- - -

General: "He's known as 'Bloodhound Filbert', and he can smell a spy a mile away."
Curly: "I'm glad he can't smell 'em any closer."

- - -

Dean: "Mildew has a lovely student body."
Moe: "Your's wouldn't be so bad either if you took off about 20 pounds."

- - -

Moe (to Larry): "You know Porcupine, for a guy without brains you're a genius."


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Back by popular demand!

The public has spoken. They have demanded more blogs so I must oblige.

Lots of happenings since last update. I just list them out since writing about each would take too long:

-proposed to The RR (she said yes)
-tenents moved out
-got (second) job at real estate firm
-house was tested for mold (all good)
-dog tested positive for Lyme disease
-switched wireless providers (again)
-employer banned all blogging and social networking

Since most of my free time lately has been spent visiting wedding reception sites (no success yet), no updates to the house itself. And since work banned blogging, no updates to the blog.

But I will make time for all 3 of my faithful blog readers going forward.

The Poppy Dance

I have been meaning to post this because it is from one of the best movies of all time. Going Ape! was one of the growing up favorites that still is amazing. We all know my love for movies with apes acting. This has 3 APES! Add in Tony Danza, Danny Devito, Lt. Mauser, Frankie Carbone and you have probably the best ensemble cast ever created . . . ever. Enjoy!

The joys of owning a white dog. . .

This is for all the people that come up to us in the park and comment about how clean our dog looks. THIS is what we have to deal with. She loves low tide:

And after walking around for 10 minutes; She smells like low tide too!

Inspection Update

Well it seems the weather this morning was a bad omen. The inspector did his thing and ruled with an iron fist that this house is no two-family. Egresses missing, no separation between units and a whole mess of legal loopholes for the future.

This leaves us with two options; jump the hoops and follow the path to two family certification or open this baby up into the mammoth one family house of all houses. Which to choose??