The week that was

Hi Everyone,

So, what's been happening this week... not much.

Last weekend the car got serviced, so we cleaned the apartment thoroughly. Moved things off the floor to mop the hardwood etc. which in all took a few hours. But enough about cleaning.

Mike and I have been trying to find a tower that we can see from our windows here, and can't find it. The search took us to Google Maps with no joy. So, I fired up Google Earth. No luck either. But, Google Earth did show me something interesting - street view has been done heavily around the area where you all live. My parents house, Mil's place and Matt's place are all visible with street view. And, as an added bonus, Goldenboy is outside Matt's place. That was the shock of the week.

Yesterday was Thursday which means softball. We lost. Oh well. I took 2 outfield catches and had 3 RBIs. I got out off base twice - I really need to learn to slide so that I stop over running them. That, or remember that I can just run for the next base instead of letting them tag me.

On the way home from the game a deer was running around on the road not far from where we live. Then, when we got home, our neighbor told us that 3 raccoons were running around in our backyard. They hopped the wall into the neighbors yard while we were watching them. I knew that raccoons were around the neighborhood (seen them as road kill), but it was cool to see a group of them together, alive.

And, the wonders of nature, laying in bed going to sleep last night, doors and windows open for fresh air, take a breath in, skunk.

I can't believe that tomorrow will be August... and Saturday.

Seriously addictive stuff...

Especially the first one:

http://www.minijuegosgratis.com/juegos/hwdykyworld/hwdykyworld.html

http://jimspages.com/States.htm

The skunk smell is inside your apartment!!!

Last night our apartment smelled liked skunk. It doesn't necessarily mean that there was a skunk anywhere really close, it could have been a long way away, but we still closed the windows to prevent more stink.

Right now I have my fingers metaphorically crossed, because actually crossed would make it hard to work, that the weather forecast is right and it won't start raining until around 7pm. Softball is at 6pm tonight.

The word for today is Kashyyyk. Why? We were getting lunch together and Liz said "I have a word in my head and I don't know what it means or why I have it in my head. What's Kashyyyk?" All I could do was smile and tell her it's the Wookiee homeworld. I feel proud.

EDIT: Game was called off... it started sprinkling at around 3pm, and the weather on the radar looks threatening. Oh well...

Last weekend

Post is a bit late... been a bit tired and busy the last few days.

The weather last weekend ended up being great - temperature was in the 80s (not hot but warm) and sunny, so we did get to go to the Bronx Zoo on Saturday. The zoo was pretty good - my favorite animal on the day was some type of lemur that they had in their Madgascar section. They had a couple of cool birds as well. I also saw a kookaburra! It was in an enclosure and everything though, not making any noise or moving too much. I felt bad for the polar bear, it was just slumped on a rock. A keeper said it had just been swimming (likely story). I also felt bad for the Golden Eagle - it's a massive bird, not as big as some of the other birds they had, but it looked so annoyed at being trapped in that cage. In all though I still think Taronga is a better zoo.

Sunday we went to see Harry Potter. I was a little disappointed in it; it could have been better. But, when I thought about it, the book mainly set up the backstory required for the 7th book. But then the movie didn't include all of that anyway... I think the 2 movies they're making for 7 will be better than what they did for 6. Time will tell. Luckily some changes they made to the story in the script didn't make it to the movie, because that would have really messed up the future movies. I also didn't like some of the things they changed in the movie. But I guess that is par for the course when you compare books to movies...

Cricket

Anyone in Australia, probably Matt because he is still awake at these hours, are they playing as badly at Lord's as the commentary suggests? It is kind of painful. One of the guys here in the office, Suresh, keeps his eyes on the game, and he keeps giving me updates so I check out what is going on... the last wicket stand in the England innings was something like 40 runs, now they can't get runs. They couldn't get wickets at the end of the last game. It may just be because I see fragmented reports, but things don't look good...

Big days

Yesterday was a big day - we had a little thing we had to take care of in the early afternoon involving our old landlord that took up some of our day. After that, we decided to get out and enjoy the sunshine, because it was actually sunny and warm for a change, so we headed to the beach. The beach was pretty cool, we saw a raccoon and also some terns. I think terns are fun to watch; they hover above the water and then dive for fish.

Today was a good day - work as normal (I got a photo from the window of the crazy headdress guy that walks Stamford's streets), then Thursday night is softball night. A big night for me - I had my first run for the season, and also my first RBI (run batted in), so I was pretty happy. I was actually pretty annoyed after my first at bat - all of my successful hits have been singles (made it to first base), but tonight I got on to a ball, and I was encouraged to try for second. I ran and made it to second, but the problem was that it was close, so I over ran. In the end I couldn't get back to the base in time and was tagged out. Tagged is a bit of an understatement - the guy tagged me so hard and shoved me that it grazed the skin under my shirt. I just need to learn to slide in to bases and I'll be set. My time in the field involved one play, a lofted ball that I had to grab and throw to second. I did it successfully, so that was good. The team won again by the run rule - we won something like 26 to 5. It was comprehensive.

After the game we went out for dinner with a girl I work with and her boyfriend (Erin and John), which was fun. The next few days should be fun too - the hope is that we can go to the Bronx Zoo over the weekend, and also perhaps check out the Harry Potter movie.

Cool thing about living in America No. 27

There are cool things about living anywhere. Without a doubt, one of the cool things about living in the US is Mexican food. In the old places our local Mexican place was MaryAnn's in Port Chester (now also with a Stamford restaurant), which is good, but it isn't as good as our new local Mexican place - Olé Molé.

I just finished a burrito from there - Salpicon De Res. Slow-roasted beef, beans (black and pinto), grilled onion and chiltomate sauce. It was awesome, the best burrito I have ever had. "That's a big statement" said Liz, but I stand by it.

2.4 miles from door to restaurant. It's dangerous. And delicious.

EDIT: Left over burrito, along with bacon and scrambled eggs forms a part of a good breakfast.

Thursday night doings

Thursday night is softball night. It had been 4 weeks since our last game; rain had postponed the others. I got more action in warm up - I took a couple of outfield catches that I was happy with. Come game time, one ball came my way, and it was a grounder to throw to second base. I play right-center field, btw.

I am getting better with the bat. Last night saw 2 base hits and a disappointing strikeout. We won the game 13 - 3 with the game halted by the "you're beating them enough" rule (whatever it is really called).

Stamford holds an outdoor concert series during summer called "Alive at Five". Last night a band that Liz has liked since middle school, Better than Ezra, were playing, so we went and checked it out after the game. It was fun.

Then, to top the post off, I had bacon with breakfast this morning.

Too much?

One strip/rasher with breakfast.

I thought about not posting this bacon-consumption item, but I was told I had to stick to my theme.

After all, bacon is great!

More bacon

More bacon tonight - this time crumbled into a salad. Covered the salad in some home made ranch dressing that I've started making. It's mayo, a splash of milk and lemon juice, then dill, black pepper and garlic powder.

3rd of July Fireworks

Yesterday afternoon we packed up some stuff and went to the beach for the fireworks for 4th of July. We got there around 4:30 to make sure that we would get a table, and it's a good thing we did, because the tables we got were among the last available. We grilled etc and then waited on the beach for the fireworks to start. There were a couple of cool things about going to the beach for the fireworks; normally the beach is closed at night, so it was cool to be there at night, and by being down near the water we could also see the fireworks in Stamford, further north from there, another display in Greenwich and then also some across the sound on Long Island.

We were pretty close to the fireworks, but all in all they weren't that great. The fireworks we saw last year were better. I took some photos, they're below. One of the photos was taken with the camera's "fireworks" setting, the other 2 were manual control, 15 second exposures (handheld, well handheld, using my knees to support my elbows).

I ate bacon

Last night I had bacon as part of dinner!

We went to BSF (Burgers Shakes and Fries) and I got a burger that had bacon on it. Is it bad when the guy who owns the burger joint recognizes you on the phone and knows you by name? Probably not when Australians are not so common here.

Bacon is great!

Short Day

Today is a short day at work because Saturday is the 4th of July. Therefore, we get an early day today and a holiday day tomorrow. 4th of July, or Independence Day, celebrates the anniversary of Will Smith, Jeff Goldblum, Bill Pullman and Randy Quaid teaming up to infect alien ships with a virus and then blow them up. For all those history buffs, they made a documentary about it, info on it is here.

The plan at this stage is to check out some fireworks somewhere. For some reason the fireworks are being done tomorrow (Friday July 3rd), instead of Saturday. That doesn't make sense to me, especially when last year they did the fireworks on Saturday July 5th... Maybe the towns are too worried about people not breaking away from their barbecues if they do them on the 4th, I'm not sure. But I bet the Canadians had their fireworks yesterday on Canada Day...

When I watch TV I see this ad a lot. Actually, this is an old version of the ad, and the new cut doesn't have any ginger kid in it, but it makes me laugh hard every time I see it. I know what it means for the dog, but I love the fact that they trained a dog to do it.

TV last night included catching a little bit of the end of Revenge of the Sith in HD. I picked up from the duel between Vader/Obi-Wan and Yoda/Sidious. Even though we all knew how it would end years before the movie was made, part of me is still disappointed when I watch it and Obi-Wan wins. At least Sidious won, I guess, and laughed all the while.

Verizon Label

Hi Everyone,

I figured that a good way to keep people up-to-date might be to start a blog. So, I used my Google account and have set this one up. I doubt I will tweak the look of this template too much, it's one of the default ones and it does the job.

Here's something that might be interesting for people, I don't think I told people about it. I have to call Verizon Wireless for my job, and recently they sent me out a replacement Blackberry. When it arrived, a lady in the office brought it to me, and said "I think this is for you". Apparently, the Australian accent is harder for some to understand than others: