For Mr. Bingley, who hates me

Tough, kid. You're a pathetic, whiny child. Sis, kick his ass.

On second thought, don't. At least not for his sad, little Tom Lehrer envy. On general principles, go ahead.

But not for lack of Tom Lehrer-trying. He has in the past shown some aptitude for Tom Lehrer references, and for that I forgive him his hatred.

And embed this:



UPDATE: I just thought I'd throw this one in for fun. Not exactly certain where it falls on the spectrum of "the ridiculous to the obscene", though perhaps it goes "too far", but there you have it:



That's right, man, kick them when they're down!

Well that was relatively painless

Got a call from the Sainted Bride at lunch. She was home. The garage door opener didn't work. Fortunately, it decided to quit working while her car was outside, rather than inside. I thought it was a great excuse to leave work early, so I planned to cancel my standing 3:00 meeting.

Didn't happen.

An issue came up in manufacturing that would need to be discussed at the meeting. No problem, I thought, it's just an update to the meeting participants, with request for suggestions after the already-determined course of action that was already in progress. Shouldn't take more than 15 minutes.

Didn't happen.

Meeting drifted off onto other tangentially related issues. Before you say, "Dude, why didn't you, as the meeting leader, keep the meeting on your agenda?", be advised that there are some big dogs at this meeting. If they decide to drift, it's out of my control. And it's not like these were unimportant things to discuss, so I let them drift.

Upshot: didn't get away from work until almost 4:00. Didn't get home until almost 5:30 (typical is 6:00). Grabbed a beer and started in on the garage door opener. Checked the obvious first (circuit breaker, etc.). Grabbed a circuit tester and tested the wires plugged into the back (actually a useless exercise, I quickly realized, because these are only for the stop sensors). Then I swapped its plug with the one for the garage overhead light.

Success (while the light switch was on, of course). Checked the garage light in the other outlet. Worked. Swapped them back. All still worked.

So I guess all that happened what that perhaps the outlet accumulated some dust that buggered up the connection, or something like that. Anyway, opener is back online. And before 6:00. Not bad for a rookie. This weekend, I'll try to blow out the outlet with some compressed air to do the job better. But for now, I have another beer and I'm good.

A laugh

Did I ever mention that I took a math class from Tom himself? I did, you know. Pretty cool.

One of my favorite Tom Lehrer songs of all time. Not least because Ronnie Reagan managed to prevent the horrible scenario by whuppin' up on the Soviet Union.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, spare me the comments. It was lots of folks, and the nuclear demon raises its head again recently.

Still, this song epitomizes the mindset of the nuclear-apocalyptic era. A stage version, which (sadly) leaves out some of the best comedy lines:



A better (audio) version:



I heard a radio interview with Tom (I took a math class from his, did I mention that? so I think I can call him Tom) a few years ago. He lamented the idea of improv comedy, and that songwriters don't put as much thought into their material these days. Well, I think that's probably true overall, but I do have a very large soft spot for those who can make stuff up in real time.

Another genealogy post

Not mine, though. I seem to have hit some dead ends in my own family tree. But I'm still intrigued by the folks in the pictures I mentioned in this post. And I'm making some progress. I mentioned before that I identified some of the pictures, and I've contacted one person already who is sort of related to the lady I shall call "Edith" (because that's her name). Edith and my Grandma and a lady I shall call "Thelma" (ibid) went to college together at Chico State. And the lady I shall call "Mary" (op cit.) is the mother of Thelma.

There is one other gal not yet identified. She seems to be closely associated with Mary and Thelma (but not within the immediate family, though one might suspect so from the pictures). This gal got married in Hawaii in the 1930s. She had a son named Austin. Austin seems to be perhaps a family name, because Thelma's brother was named Austin.

I'm really hoping to identify this other gal soon, because the number of people who may have known this family is dwindling rapidly. Mom died in 2002, Auntie died in 2006, Mary died in 1957, Thelma died in (probably, not certain of the identity) 1973. Edith died ... well, I don't know, but I'm pretty sure she was born in 1902 and I think it's a fair bet that she didn't make 107. Her daughter is still alive, though (at last contact with said daughter's cousin) but no word back from the fellow yet.

But a small ray of hope: Thelma's brother, the aforementioned Austin, had a son. And I think I may have actually located him.

Now to find a way to contact him and offer pictures and ask for information without sounding like a weirdo stalker.

Shut up. I am NOT a weirdo stalker. I'm NOT!

Memorial Day

To Our Fallen Heroes:



We are not worthy.

Terminal morbidity

I got kind of melancholic while putting together my (not worthy) Memorial Day post. I was perusing old posts trying to cheer myself up. It helped a little but it also made me even more melancholy. I got to thinking about Nick Reynolds and Brian Wilson, and others who have made me happy in the past but have now sadly passed on. So I'm just posting some cool stuff, some of which I've posted before. But they make me happy.

Sloop John B (y'all know how much I love this song):



We love you, Nick.

Another, earlier version I've never heard before:



I have no idea who Lyn Murray is, but very cool my man.

Of course, the greatest version of all time was by the Beach Boys. Unfortunately, the version embedded above has since had embedding disabled. Fascist pigs, (but hit the link, you can still see it there). Here's another embedded version with some pretty cool graphics:



Oddly enough, though, the specific Kingston Trio vid I was looking for, before veering off into "Sloop John B", was this one:



Man, I love you guys. R.I.P., Nick. You rock, man.

Stimulating the economy

Sooo... This weekend has been one of stimulating the economy. So I'm thinking President Obama owes me one.

Tomorrow we get some new doors installed. Nine, in fact. I really wanted solid-core doors, they have such a great feel compared to hollow-core doors. However (remembering the numbers no doubt imprecisely), solid-core = ~$250, hollow-core = ~$45. And $200 per door is nothing to sneeze at.

Sigh. Sorry, Prez. Can't afford to stimulate that much.

Anyway, we went with hollow-core for the interior doors, solid-core with the one outside door we're getting. Also, we're upgrading the doorknobs for the most part. We really love the antique brass look, so we're continuing the slow upgrade on them I've been doing for a while now. We're keeping the ones we already changed, replacing the ones we haven't yet. But (WARNING: Product endorsement coming!) if you happen to go shopping for new knobs (not connected with the FFOT), please do check out the Schlage knobs. Seriously. There's another brand somewhat less expensive which looks very similar I honestly can't remember the brand name). I've bought them before and they are fine. But before you buy, please do check out the feel of the different brands. The Schlage are definitely worth the extra few bucks in my book. They just feel so much better in your hand when you turn them. Not that we're replacing the cheapies already bought (Sorry, Prez!), but maybe someday.

And the other stimulating thing we did today? Bought a new car for the Sainted Bride. Good sale weekend, and a good time to buy (not a good time to be selling, of course, but we did well on the price). So I will inherit the SB's older 2000 Buick, with which I will commute, alternating with my current 2001 Scooby-Doo. It seems wise. The Buick, in 9 years, has about 70,000 miles on it, the Scooby-Doo, in 8 years, has in excess of 200,000.

Yeah, though I've done a wee bit of quality off-roading with the Scooby-Doo (including putting a bagged buck in the back) the Buick needs some quality highway miles added to it in addition to the few we've put on it on weekends and vacations. And there's the additional peace of mind that comes with the fact that when the dearly beloved Scooby-Doo finally kicks the proverbial bucket, we won't have to be at the mercy of mercenary dealers and have to make a deal quickly, as has happened in the past (reference here to the Great Truck-Smashup-and-subsequent-Buy-a-New-Car-then-go-back-to-work-to-my-first-Year-End-Inventory omitted because it's no longer available on 'Pints).

So that's how we've helped stimulate the economy this weekend. Drop your stimulations in the comments. Even if they are not economy related. Preferably if they are not economy related. And please include all relevant details. In very explicit detail, please.