Michael's Shower

Ice cream on a cold day

Last night after getting dropped off late to FHE, my ride home wanted to leave early. So after about 10 minutes, we leave. I was going to suggest that we go somewhere seeing how Mary is fairly new to the area. She apparently was thinking along the same lines because the moment we got out the door, she said. "I don't need to be going home right now."

OK, I thought. Here was my chance to suggest something.

"Is there something fun we can do around here?"

"Are you asking me out?" I questioned jokingly.

"I have a policy not to ask guys out."

"Oh, " said I. "I don't mind asking guys out."

"What? I hope you do."

"Just kidding. I actually have a date with Traci on Saturday."

Traci is not her real name. Anyway, we went to Ben & Jerry's. The said we were the third customer all day. They locked the door after we left... it was closing time. I guess not many go for cold ice cream on a cold day. It may be the location too.

New nickname

My new nickname is "sunshine". Yeah me. Well, I did get a note from Sister Cox once.

I guess the name is a reminder to be more positive?

Largest Dinner group 2

Well, it was less stressful the second time. Mostly because all I did was host. The ward picked the group, I made assignments. We gad two separate tables to manage the conversations.

I thought it went well.

Movies in review

Did they use the same dogs in Eight Below as they did in Snow Dogs? I liked Eight Below, especially of the shoots of Astoria, Oregon. Like with March of the Penguins, the poles are just too cold for me.

Swiss Family Robinson is a old favorite.
Drunken Master was a strange old film. It was funny. Not as serious as Firewall, which was somewhat funny but entertaining.

It was Just Like Heaven? Not really, but I did see, in part, all of these movies this weekend. Except Snow Dogs.

My desire to see all 3D, computer animated movies might have to be reevaluated. The trailor for the Wild looked entertaining, Doogal and others seem quite a stretch for me. Maybe, I'll get them on Netflix.

Sears Homes

My great grandparents used to live in one on these Sears Catalog Homes in Idaho. I wonder how it was. I wonder how long the house lasted.

Whole Foods Market

Probably a year ago I needed to get some stuff for a party. I could have picked it up on the way home from Giants, but it would have been convenient to grab it from a place near work. I went to all the little shops, and found nothing.

I did a Google search and found this Whole Foods place. When I went out the address, all I found was this construction site. I thought the information was faulty. I guess it was just early.

I knew the store was open because guys at work had gone there. Well, today I finally did. It had a lot of strange, organic, healthy stuff. Oh well, it is all good.
I like those Amy's foods I get from Giants on occasion.

I ate lunch from there. It was not bad at all. Noticeable taste difference? Yes, but the smell is probably worse.

Good Mail

I received a bunch of good email today. I wonder how much was a result of my post. Probably none.

Oh well, it has been a fairly productive day. Updated the library post.

I got a rather poor plan for the weekend. Well, at least it is a plan.

Crappy mail week

There have been few good email messages this week. Why? Dang it, email me!

School Bus Terror watch

I love reading this blog.

I would probably feel safer if the money was spent on getting free broadband Internet access to every home.

ICE, ICE BABY

Cool, I just learned about this agency. Some guy in my ward got a job there... Well, he has to move from the area. When I first asked what this new government job was, I was told DHS.

"OK," I said. "What agency?"

Some people around me looked at me funny, but the guy knew what I was asking for and told me... ICE.

Not everyone works directly for the 15 departments of the US Executive branch. If I am correct, only the CIA does not fall under a department.

Costco shoes

I'm an impulsive shopper. I saw some inexpensive tennis shoes at Costco. I guess I don't need to go to Payless!

TrayCalendar.Net

I just posted a new article on CodeProject.com.

Nasty cold

OK, I'm just exhausted more than I seem to cough. Is it worse to suppress these coughs or to let my throat hurt after coughing?

I guess it is good I didn't have any real plans fir the weekend. I just need to rest up and drug up?

2006 Visitors Guide is Here!

This 22 MB download is a great resource on stuff to do in the DC area. Get the book here. Then, click on the save button.

GMail plus Chat bytes

I've never had a major issue with GMail until they integrated the chat stuff. I was composing and before I got to save or the auto save kicked in, I got booted off and the chat thing wanted me to log back in... the message I was composing was gone!

I admit it is cool to see who is online and I'm sure I've bugged people with a chat "spam" like someone (that I knew) did to me. Chat spam in this case is a "hello" message.

Not sure I want the chat stuff.

Snow day pictures

Here are some pictures from last Sunday.

The house. View image

The Hummer. View image

The Statue. View image

The White house. View image

The Capitol. View image

Washington Monument. View image

Wasted V-day effort?

Well, I hope I never have an affair. (See link!)

I spent some effort in distributing happy heart day messages. My most expensive ones did not go to the highest ranking people on my ever changing list of interests.

Oh well, if all I did was spread some joy, then I did well.

On the way to work, I gave my roommate an idea that worked out well. I'm guessing that was just a taste of what is coming tonight. Too bad, I'm not in his shoes? Oh well.

Silliest movie ever

I went to see Annapolis the other day with some friends. I thought it would be an entertaining movie.

The theater was very small. It was like they were not expecting many to see the film.

It was so poorly produced. The story line was alright. It did seem like a Navy recruiting ad. "Are you tough enough?"

There were a couple shots where the camera would giggle and you could see the top of some guys head. Other shots had the actors head cut off. My favorite was the the microphone poking down from the top. What the?

After a while, it was just too funny to watch.

There was a guy outside the theater handing out refund passes... Wow, I guess too many complained about the movie that it was standard procedure to get refunds.

Ugliest Man ever

I remember as a kid, we went to the University Mall in Orem. We went to Dairy Queen as we almost always did, partialy because my brother was collecting these plastic baseball hats.

As we ate, I looked around and saw this guy enjoying some ice cream cone of sorts. He was the ugliest person I ever saw.

I often look back on that event. Who was that man? What is his story? Even ugly people enjoy ice cream. Have I become that guy to some degree?

Pickett Haus Bond

Because of the snow and no power, the guys at the house (minus Romeo who went to Juliette's house) went on a ride in the Hummer (H3).

It was pretty fun to go through some snow banks and over hills, but we were in the city so we couldn't do much of that. We ended up at Haines Point where we had to walk to the statue.

After a change of clothes because of the snowball fights and the countless times I fell in the snow, we went to lunch at Generous George. We had a good time.

After two games of chess, we went to some lady friends's place and hung out. It was great, they were nice enough to have us over.

When we got back home, we had power! Yahoo! It would have been a cold night.

Swordplay

I went back to Gadsby's, this time for an historical demonstration on sword fighting. I tried real had to find a date to go with. I here a ration of crap about how dates do not have to cost money or at least a lot. Like this event, where I find this fun activity, I get a ration that everyone I ask is busy.

There is no real need to use this as an example why dating sucks, because that is an eternal truth already. I am tired of the ration I get from church leaders about the bloody venture....

Anyway, it totally would have been awesome to have had someone to talk with... and quicker to get to. In desperation, I even asked some guys to go... but in the rain I went... stinking bums.

It was cool on it's own. I got to swing a sword around a bit. I even touched a one sword that I knew was "off limits", but hey ... I'm a punk. I know.

I also hate averting my gaze from little kids who look at me funny. I did a lot of that there. I wanted to smack some of them with my sword. OK, not really.

Where are the 9?

We got lots of snow Saturday night. In the morning, I noticed we were without power. No problem I thought, it'll be nice and warm at church. Then I get a call that church was canceled.

I thought it would be nice if I spread the word, so to speak. I text messaged about 10 people whom i either knew could take SMS messages on their phone. Only about one responded with a thank you.

I wondered if I spelled something wrong. I looked up later that canceled and cancelled are both correct spellings.

Haines Point

Imagine this picture (taken from a Google search) with lots of snow on the ground. That is what I saw when I went there last.

From the little river cruise, I wanted to see East Potomac Park, Fort Washington, and the lighthouse. I did not know about this weird statue called the "Awakening."

I'll have to go back to the Park when there is no snow. Would be fun.

Jones Point

I found the lighthouse that was eluding me the other day. I had to go onto Google maps and switch back and forth between map mode and satellite mode.

It is not a traditional looking lighthouse.

Cool. From this website, I learned that you can use Coordinates (Degrees, Minutes, Seconds) in the Google Map search.

So many things to do

Our ward had a Valentines dessert/entertainment evening for the Sisters. It were alright. I think is little sad compared to what the Colonial 1st ward is going to do, but I suppose was good.

I sincerely think we could have done better, or put forth more effort. At least, I know I didn't do much. I served my table, talked to the ladies there.

This morning, the I could have gone to an early morning meeting. There is many things to look into to go do today, other stuff to do online, and the evening seems to be full.

Anglerfish

I thought Pixar was making up this funny looking fish called Anglerfish, in the Finding Nemo movie. I was going though the book I got from MoMA and noticed the "r" in the spelling. I tried to look up Anglefish because I read it off the display at the museum. The search on the misspelling was fruitless.

Wow, learn something every day.

Earth is lame

Well, it seems a lot of the people are. See this post.

Securty Breach?

Why would anyone post a document on a secure server (https) without password protecting the folder? I'm sure to get to the link one would need to be able to login. Once the link was found, it could be emailed to countless others who do not need to log in.

I just downloaded a 2MB file from a state government agency. It contained over 19,000 names, addresses, and associated license numbers.

We live in an untrustworthy world - which is too bad. A random Google search lead me to the file and I was not as shocked as I probably should be. I wouldn't be surprised if I could sell this file now, or if it already has been.

Maybe some snail mail spammer already found it. D'oh!!!!

Aardman Animations

Cool, I have always liked Nick Park's stuff. I stated, but not in my blog probably, that Nick or Aardman studio should get with Pixar and do more movies. It might be faster than claymation.

Well, Pixar might not have wanted them. That will not stop DreamWorks. They will take almost anything. OK, I think Century Fox is worse.

Anyway, stay tuned for Flushed Away.

Too many Options?

Once again I feel there are way too many pretty single women in the area. Well, it is great to be around them all but it makes it really hard to choose one.

Maybe I just need to be more like my roommate, choose one and go "gang busters" after her! It would help if I weren't so interested in all the new pretty faces I run across.

Then there are all the "old" faces I missed out on in the past. Should I just roll some dice? And pursue the one who's number comes up?

Ebleskivers Folds in the Rain

Yesterday I had some Ebleskivers . The are Danish pancakes. Think of them as little pancake balls. They were good. I'll need to get a Norwegian waffle iron and make waffles one of these days.

I heard the Ben Folds song I used to dance to with my youngest niece. I like the beat to the song and the piano melody.

It also rained pretty good. All I can say is that it is about time.

West Wing Tour

It was very interesting to tour the West Wing. I wish I could have seen more. Like going into the Situation Room, the Oval Office and upstairs if there was one. We also saw the Press room.

I enjoyed the paintings of the war ships. Especially that of the USS Constitution. There was a model like the one my Dad built too.

My Dad would have enjoyed the tour more than I did. I got up there earlier than I thought. I tried to go to the Ronald Reagan building to eat at the Food Court. It was closed.

I brought a dark chocolate candy bar for the tour guide because I knew she liked them. It was refused.

I thought I had time to eat it, but the last person we were waiting for was coming. Well, everyone thought she was closer than she was.... I totally had time to eat it.

I could have been a lot pleasant had I eaten something. Oh well, nothing new there.

AutoComplete face

My application to help typing is getting a face lift. View image Not all the features work, but the heart of the app does.... the DB part.

The program keeps a database of commonly used words. As the user types, it will suggest the most used word(s) that the user has typed. It keeps tract of how often a 4 or more letter word is used and it learns new words not in the database.

If the word does not immediately appear in the text box, press F4 to see a list of words. (Currently sorted by count of usage.) To delete a word select it and hit the delete key.

I'll probably rename it AutoType or something in the future. Get the Visual C# (2005) project here.

State of the Union

Yeah, I watched it. Can you believe that? Most of it I understood because someone would explain stuff as he talked. They also pointed out who was who and how many standing ovations he got.

Personally, it was strange he wants the Patriot Act renewed. I knew that would bug some people.

He also mentioned something about this NSA surveillance of US citizens. Well, that it was what I got out of it. According to Wikipeda, when congressional critics began to investigate and expose early programs of internal espionage those projects were terminated.

IE7 Beta 2 Preview

I downloaded the new Internet Explorer 7. It is alright. I just wanted to do something different. I liked how it would open a new tab when I clicked on this Internet shortcut I use for my personal email.

Usually it would take over a browser window if one was already open. I didn't like that. Especially if the open window was some stinking Pop up.

I need to find the option to hide this search box. The Google toolbar has more than just this search box that I use all the time. I also have a search toolbar for Merriam-Webster. I am always looking up words.