Ummm... what...

Something seems weird at St John's Episcopal Church in Stamford. I'll let you all decide whether it is odd or not based on these photos (taken from a car on a cloudy and rainy day).

Umm...

Things I remembered/was reminded of this week

Thinking back on this last week I was reminded of a few things:

- Buffalo bites are delicious:

They are pretty much boneless buffalo wings, but cut up into bite-size pieces. I cut the chicken up, then in a bag mix flour, a little salt, black pepper, paprika and red pepper. Toss the chicken in the bag and let it sit in the fridge for 30 minutes. After that, throw them in the oven. Just before they come out of the oven make some wing sauce (hot sauce and butter). Stir them both together and serve with some ranch dressing. It's the good stuff.

- A falling tree, which we've seen a lot of lately, would really hurt:

On the way to work we drive down a (reasonably) major Stamford road, Washington Blvd. There is a river/stream that runs next to the road, where this tree fell during the big wind storm a fortnight ago. It pulled up dirt and roots with it when it fell and took out a fence. Hopefully they clean it up before softball season, because the tree crushed the right field fence, and a garbage bin, and Scalzi Park field 3 is already small enough.

- The Japanese make some truly wonderful stuff:

I saw this on Geekologie. I love the entire commercial, but especially when the dog is doing stuff on 2 legs (walking weird, running normally with a dog photo over his crotch, and the frisbee dance). Liz watched it and then staired blankly at the TV. "I don't understand any of what I just saw" she eventually said.

- South Park is freaking awesome

I'm reminded of this with pretty much every episode I see, but when they ripped off Sarah Jessica Parker, I thought it was fantastic (I can't stand looking at that woman, probably even more so than Jennifer Lopez)... and all the cartoon vomit was fantastic.

- The Clone Wars is actually good

After watching the episode last week after 3 weeks off the air I was severely disappointed. I enjoyed this week's episode though. A new character that was actually seen as a threat to the Jedi, some type of actual "war" in the show. My only complaint was that they seem so quick to kill off characters who might actually pose a threat to the heroes. Sure, it's a kids show and the heroes are going to win, but at least let some of these characters, other than Grievous and Ventress, get more than one shot at winning. I'll hold out slim hope that Admiral Trench (above) survived some how (he apparently did before, though it is highly doubtful this time). This episode was also set before all of the other episodes, so hopefully he makes some type of appearance again. But I know he won't...

- Sleeping in on the weekend is good

Enough said.

- Bacon is great

Had it for breakfast yesterday. Wonderful stuff.

First full day of Spring

I know I did a "Who" the other day, but both of these seemed timely, so I went with them. Today is the first full day of Spring here, so I want to introduce you all to the guy across the street.

Vvvrrrrrmmmm. The sound of a leaf blower roars across suburbia. It's him. It's always him. He went through his routine yesterday, but that doesn't matter. He needs to do it today. There cannot be a leaf on the lawn. Not one.

John Lawngow. Not his real name, but the name I have given him. I call him John Lawngow because his receeding hair line and hair color remind me of John Lithgow.

Really? My hair looks like that?

John has an obsession with his lawn. He will spend hours on his lawn on Saturday, making it look pristine, and then will come back out and do it again on Sunday. He will also come out and do it several times a week after work.

He seems to have a routine, or at least, this is how I have witnessed his work on the yard. First, he leaf blows. He never rakes. Following the leaf blowing, he will mow the lawn. After mowing, he puts lime in his special dispensing contraption and goes over the entire lawn. After that, he mows again. Here it is pictorially.

One of the funniest moments I have witnessed with John Lawngow was on a slightly windy day a few months ago. After having walked all around his yard for around 30 minutes, leaf blower going the whole time, he had all his leaves in a pile next to the road. Ready to blow them into the street, the wind turned, blowing leaves all over his lawn. I laughed, and so did Tiff who saw it as well, but John just shook his head and muttered something under his breath.

I figured that the snow would stop John from coming out and doing stuff in the yard, but he proved he has a tool for every job. While everyone else was out shovelling their driveways, he brought out this:

The thing I don't get about it is that it still seems to blow the snow over places you are going to need to go back over anyway. Plus, he has to push it all over the places he needs to go, just like a shovel. I guess he just saves himself the lifting.

He loves using his tools. Today, I witnessed him using his leaf blower to clean off his cars. I kid you not. I think he probably also brushes his teeth and dries his dishes with that leaf blower.

It seems though that even John has his limits, or, in fact, doesn't have a tool for every job. He paid someone to come and clean this up:

Liz saw the tree fall, as did he - he was standing in his doorway when it happened. There was only minor damage to the trunk/boot.

Why the obsession with the lawn and with his yard tools? Theories and speculation abound - he doesn't like his wife, his kids are disappointments, he likes being outside. But, me, being the responsible poster I am, I went and got the full story* - he loves the smell of lawn tool exhaust.

John's yard before being done. See the few leaves at the front of his yard - that's how you know he'll be outside soon.

John with his weapon of choice: the leaf blower.

* Of course, I made it up.

Saugatuck Falls Natural Area

We (Liz and I, and Richard and Andrew came as well) got out for our walk today, heading to Saugatuck Falls Natural Area. It was in Redding again, but a different part of town. Apparently, they aren't sure about the rules there...

Walking across a bridge, I was out in front, Andrew said "Garter Snake". I turned around and after some pointing out I saw the snake. Apparently not poisonous, it would probably struggle to bite me. Still, the snake creeped me out - I'm not sure if it is because I associate snakes with things that can bite me and make me sick or dead.

We walked along the Falls Trail, which we figured would take us to the falls. It opened up into a large field, and while I never walk with a stick in my hands I grabbed a stick and started walking. Not far along the trail I found another stick:

"I found a new stick!" (is what I was saying as the photo was taken)

Dropping the "new stick" (the big one), we got to the river and the trail wound alongside it towards the falls.

Looking back along the trail

We made it to the falls, which seemed to be more like rapids than falls. At the base of them was some still water surrounded by trees, one of which had a big strap/rope for swinging into the river. We sat around there for a while and then kept walking. The trail headed up a small hill, and on reaching the top we saw the bulk of the falls. Still wasn't a massive drop and looked like big rapids, but they were definitely falls and better than the earlier stuff.

The early falls (token slow shutter shot, I've taken a lot lately...)

Our loop back to the car took us past a vernal swamp. It caught our attention because from even about 50 yards away you could hear frogs. They stopped making noise when I got close to the pond, but Andrew pointed out a black mass on the other side of the pond - eggs. I went over and took a photo of them, they looked cool.

(Click to see bigger)

I'd certainly go back to the area in summer, the trails were good and not too hilly, and in the summer heat the shade and lack of hills will be nice. Plus the sound of the water was good to hear.

After the walk we did some grocery shopping which included some meat to grill. I made burgers, and I was happy with how they came out. I had a double, so a bit over 1/2 a pound of beef on a bun with some onions and ketchup and mustard, and topped it off with some baked beans and hot dogs. Mmmm... meat. And beans.

No Way!!!!

In The Office, they often refer to the Stamford office. We always just assumed they meant Stamford, CT, which I thought was pretty funny.

This season, they confirmed CT when one of the employees transferred there. Then, in the episode we just watched, they showed an establishing shot of the office.

THE BUILDING IS THE BUILDING I WORK IN!!!!

Based on the zoom they are about 2 - 3 floors above where I work. I thought that was cool.

End of the week...

Well, it's Friday night, and it feels like it was a long time coming. With everything that went on last weekend with the weather/lack of power it felt like we didn't get a weekend, and that the week was 12 days long. Factor in the change in time for daylight savings and it has thrown me off a little.

South Park the other night was awesome, and FlashForward was good. I was really psyched for Clone Wars, but it pretty much sucked. I liked one line in the entire episode and that was it. I was more entertained by the preview for next week. Oh well, 2 out of 3 ain't bad...

Tomorrow is supposed to be around 70F/21C, so the plan is to head out somewhere new and go for a walk. I'm really looking forward to spending some more time outside.

Time for an episode of The Office and check the cricket score before hitting the hay...

Hooray!

95 hours after the lights went out Liz and I are no longer powerless! I don't know if we are powerful or empowered or whatever, but we apparently have electricity flowing to our apartment again!

I say apparently because we haven't been there today, but Liz tried to call the apartment, and, instead of being redirected, the answering machine picked up! Therefore, because our phone runs through the Internet and the Internet is through our cable, it may also be the case that we have everything back!

On the downside of power returning, Liz found out that Audubon has power as well, so she is back to work tomorrow.

Admittedly, while I am most looking forward to warm water and stuff like that again, I will probably try and catch South Park tonight...