I'll Have The Stromboli

One of Europe's most active volcanoes is erupting right this very second. Italy's Stromboli volcano, near Sicily, has been spewing lava into the Mediterranean for two days. Luckily there is no danger at this time for anyone in the vicinity. Read the story here.

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What are friends for?

No Bueno

Visited the pediatrician today. It seems the whole family is suffering from seasonal allergies. I hate that. Itchy, watery eyes, congestion and sneezing. NO BUENO!

Lost and Found

So, last night starting at 11:53 PM, I started receiving a series of text messages on my cellular phone. At 12:42 AM another, then at 1:00 AM, again at 3:28 AM, and the final one (so far) at 6:37 AM. They were all from Blogger telling me that my multimedia message had posted successfully to my blog.

I had been having trouble with mobile blogging in the sense that I would try to post something but it would never make it to my blog. In some instances I would send something from my phone three or four times before I finally receive a confirmation from Blogger that it had posted. These sent messages cost money you know and it was really irritating to have to send the same message multiple times before it would post. I don't know if it is a problem with Blogger or my cellular service provider.

Anyway, during a recent road trip, I had tried to post some photos and ran into the same problem. I had to send the same message multiple times before it would actually post and then receive my confirmation. All the confirmation text messages I received last night and this morning were from attempted posts dating 2/16/07 and 2/19/07. And I had to go in and delete those "lost" posts because one of each had already posted successfully back when I was originally trying to post them.

Doomsday

There's a 1 in 45,000 chance that my birthday present in 2036 may be an asteroid. Cool. The U.N. is being urged to take action now to protect the Earth from these types of threats. I say we just freeze Bruce Willis now and thaw him out when the time comes so he can save the day. Read the full story here.

Mummified Domestic Servant

When I was reading the article regarding the discovery of a pharaoh's butler in a tomb in Egypt, I began thinking about whether the butler had died at the same time as his employer or if he was killed to follow the employer into the afterlife. Much funnier when I ran across the blog entry of Scott Adams about the mummy titled Mummy Dearest.

Science Myths

LiveScience.com has twenty of the most popular myths in science for your reading pleasure here. I remember Fox Mulder stating myth #2 to Dana Scully during an episode and I had always thought myth #4 was a perfect excuse for some of the people I've worked with or dealt with in the world. I guess it's better to say it like it really is...you're just plain stupid. By the way, do you know what your dog has been licking?

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Going home

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'nuf said

A Visit to Burger King Circa 1975

Mmmm. I want a Whaler with fries. No, wait. Make that a Yumbo with fries. And do they have Rondo, the thirst crusher? Neato, I'll take that. Oh, and I'd like a grape Ice Burger for dessert. Yay! After we're done can we go to the movies? Please?

I Thought I Saw A Dancing Dog

I had seen this video before but for some reason wanted to see it again today. Very strange. Maybe it has something to do with the reality show commercial I saw the other day.

It Never Fails

Why does it always rain after I wash my car? The weather forecast called for a ten percent chance of rain today and I heard this forecast on Friday evening. It hasn't changed in three days. Ha, ten percent might as well be zero percent around here. So I wash my car on Saturday thinking it will be clean for at least a week. But oh no, it's got to rain on my parade. That's just my karma.

Violation

It turns out the last time I used the Tollway I received a violation. I seem to recall one of the "call" lights blinking at me when I went through but didn't think anything of it. I finally get a nastygram from the Toll Authority saying they want the .60 cents that's owed to them or face the consequences. I called them up and asked them why I had a violation and they said that the license plate information didn't match with the tolltag vehicle information. I explained to the woman that I had bought a new car and had forgotten to update the vehicle information online. She said it was my mistake so I needed to pay and take care of maintaining my account. Geesh, throw me in jail why don't you.

Houston We Have A Problem

The more I hear about the astronaut-love triangle-kidnap-murder story, the more it makes me think how goofy and strange it all is. Perfect for a Lifetime made-for-T.V. movie or even the big screen if you throw in an alien or something. I don't mean to demean Lisa Nowak or ignore the fact that she obviously has some mental problems and needs help. But I think she could have been more creative in her plot. You know, like make sure that she and the other two involved were assigned to the next shuttle mission and then blow them out of the airlock into space. Or when one of the triangle is outside during a space walk, use the giant robotic arm and accidentally crush them or cut their safety line. Those scenarios would probably make for a better book and movie deal than racing across the southern U.S. wearing diapers. You can read the story here.

Semi Gloss vs Satin

I was driving through town the other day and passed a Sam's Club on the east side of town. I saw a gasoline tanker truck leaving the fuel pumps there and get on the highway behind me. When I arrived on the west side of town I went to the Sam's Club there, which is about fifteen miles west of the one I passed earlier, and after shopping there saw the same gasoline tanker truck at the fuel pumps. Now, riddle me this Batman. The gasoline price at the Sam's Club on the east side is $1.84 a gallon and here at the Sam's Club on the west side the price is $1.94 a gallon. The fuel came out of the same truck so why is there a price difference? Explain that to me, Mr. Smarty Pants.

Check This Out

I read that many more people are paying for their goods and services using electronic means such as debit cards and online bill pay rather than the old fashioned check writing. I think I mentioned in the past that I usually only write one check a month and all my other bills are paid online and most of my purchases are paid for using a debit card. But there are still those who choose to write checks for everything under the sun and yes, it seems I'm always stuck behind them at the check out. Even so, the wonders of the electronic age never ceases to amaze me although I'm still waiting for my flying car like in The Jetsons. You can peruse the whole article here.

Just Passing By

The family and I were out and about this morning and as we were approaching the zoo I made a decision to go there. The zoo, the zoo, the zoo. Repeat that really fast. Since this was The Little One's first visit to a zoo we were all looking forward to how she would react to the animals. Well, she really enjoyed herself. She was running around with her big sister from one exhibit to another. She especially enjoyed watching the monkeys and sea lion feeding/exhibit. I'd say she liked viewing all the animals except for the insects in one of the nocturnal exhibits. I didn't enjoy that either, though. Yuck.

Hmmm?

So, Texas governor Rick Perry has ordered that schoolgirls in Texas must be vaccinated against the sexually transmitted virus that causes cervical cancer. Hmmm. I don't know whether he's doing a good thing or not. Apparently the manufacturer of the vaccine supported Perry's reelection campaign and there are other ties between them also. Hmmm. But it would be a good thing to reduce the chances of women contracting cervical cancer. I just don't know. Hmmm. You can read the whole story here.

The Frugal Technophile

I was thinking about how far technology has gone in the past fifteen years and how those changes had affected most people's way of life. Nowadays I don't leave the house without my cell phone and go back to get it if I do because no one would be able to get a hold of me. Many years back I had six remote controls but now I only have one that does the work of six. I do just about everything I can on the Internet because it usually saves me time and money. Unless your dealing with city, county, or state government that is.

For example, it's time for me to renew my vehicle registration and I thought to myself why I haven't been doing that online. When I did go online I realized that the reason I didn't in the past is because the county charges me a "convenience fee" to do it online. Well, I'm just too darned cheap to pay a fee to the county. It's kind of like when there weren't many ATMs around the city and if you used one that wasn't affiliated with your bank then you were charged a fee. I would drive a couple of miles down the road to find my bank's ATM before I would pay that darned fee. There are also some restaurants around town that will take orders online but they will add on a fee for doing it. So I just pick up the darned telephone and phone in my order because that doesn't cost extra. Explain the logic to me. But the amazing thing here is that I pay all my bills online through my bank's website. For free. It doesn't cost me a penny even though I have a lot of bills every month. Go figure.