Long Weekend Hangover

Last weekend was a long weekend here, with Monday being a holiday for Martin Luther King Jr Day.

Saturday was a nice day outside, sunny and a few degrees above freezing, the warmest it had been for quite a while. As such we decided to take advantage of the "warm" weather and go for a walk. Deciding to go somewhere different we headed for a state park about an hour away from Stamford called Kettletown State Park. Once we arrived there we found it was a few degrees cooler there than it was at home, and it was a little windy. We pushed on anyway, but found the trails covered in a combination of ice, mud and snow. I tried taking some photos but almost slipped over, so we headed down one of the roads in the park. It led to the lake, which was partially iced over.

We walked out on some of the ice closer to the shore, which is where I took this photo from. Being on the ice was fun. I didn't think it was as slippery as the ice that was on the trails or as the ice you would find in a rink. Standing on the ice, never more than around 2 metres from the "shore" you could hear the ice melting and dripping in to the lake, and a couple of times I heard cracking noises, just luckily not from directly under my feet.

This photo gives you an idea of how thick the ice was, and how it had ledges from where some of the ice was melting back in to the water.

After about 30 minutes on the ice the sun went down behind a nearby hill, leaving it even colder on the ice on the lake. We started to head back to the car, but on the way I wanted to try for more photos where I had earlier slipped. Opting to warm up, Liz went to the car, telling me to be careful. In the process of snapping these photos I only slipped twice, and had to throw my body around very awkwardly on another occasion to avoid finding myself with wet clothes for the ride home. But it was worth it in the end, because I had fun getting these photos.

There were others, but to save space I posted my favorites.

Saturday night we just chilled out. The small stroll seemed to take it out of us now that we are in peak winter fitness.

Sunday we woke up and went over to Gail's house to watch a couple of movies.The first movie we watched was "Harry and the Hendersons". It had been so long since I saw that movie that I forgot that John Lithgow was in it. However, once I heard that the name of the hunter was "La Flore", I couldn't get Richie's vineyard out of my head, Chateau Verdaflore. Non-Australian's won't get it...

After Harry came Zoolander. Classic movie.

On Monday we woke up late and got a phone call that the TV stand we bought ourselves for Christmas (and ordered in November) was ready to pick up. We went and grabbed that and set everything up on it. The coffee table can now resume its normal function as a coffee table, and the ottoman is being set up in front of the single chair. The room will be different again, and in it's normal state, when the Christmas tree comes out, which might be in a week or so. The limbs are starting to droop...

After dinner we watched another movie, this time Back to the Future. I had forgotten so much of that movie and enjoyed watching it again.

Back to work today, we had to grab some groceries this evening. We grabbed some bacon, because to quote Liz "We haven't had bacon since Christmas!", and we really need to give the (bacon) press a workout.

2 hours later...

I can tell you that the ice cream was delicious.

I can also say that "30 minutes over Tokyo" is a great episode of The Simpsons.

"we're experiencing some moderate Godzilla-related turbulence at this time"

Guys Night In

Tiff and Liz have gone for a Girls Night Out, so that means I'm having a Guys Night In. Pretty much I cooked and ate a few sausages, watched Revenge of the Sith, drank Cream Soda and occasionally checked on the cricket score. Yeah, I party hard. Right now I am also whipping up a batch of Pineapple Ice Cream. It's a noisy, but very delicious, endeavor.

We also had a cool night on Wednesday night. We went down to NYC and had dinner down there and had a short walk around the Village (Greenwich Village) in the southern half of Manhattan. While we were there I took a few snaps around the neighborhood and in Washington Square Park, but not too many, because it was freezing down there. It really was around 32 degrees or colder.

Just checking on the Ice Cream... it's starting to thicken.

The pics are of the Arch in the park (there is also the Empire State Building visible beneath the arch), an experiment into kinetic photography, where I zoomed as I exposed the shot, and then 1 of I believe the library... the clouds looked pretty cool with the city lights reflecting off them.

I think it's time to finish up the ice cream and wait until tasting time...

Quizzes

Last weekend we went ice skating and I only stacked it once. It was a good stack though - completely off the ice, landing on my side. No bruises or anything, so I guess that's a good thing. (Stack/ed definition, NSFW, has a lot of Australian slang in it, which is explained if you mouse over the term)

Today I happened across some quizzes online. They are all very scientific, as everything on the internet is. You can take them at The Oatmeal. Here are some of my results:

I did other quizzes, but didn't post the results... they also have some amusing comics/articles there.

Dealing with addiction

Recently with cold weather and snow fall (photos here) we have been doing more and more inside, particularly TV watching. We've watched all the episodes so far of FlashForward, we're 9 2/3 seasons through Friends, 4 episodes into Star Wars: The Clone Wars on DVD and have started watching Seinfeld.

But not all of the tv shows we have been watching are on DVD. Earlier this week I looked at Liz while watching one of them and said to her,

"I think I'm addicted to Ninja Warrior..."

Ninja Warrior is the American name for the Japanese show "Sasuke", and features contestants trying to make their way through 4 stages of obstacles. I first saw it when Marc (Hampton/Horse) visited a few months ago, but then rediscovered it recently.

There is also Women of Ninja Warrior (all women competitors) and American Ninja Warrior (which showed American qualification rounds and then the top 10 people going to Japan to compete in Ninja Warrior). I haven't watched Women of Ninja Warrior, so I can't comment on it. American Ninja Warrior was OK, but wasn't as good as the Japanese original. It was full of free runners and stunt men, where the Japanese original has fire men, students and all walks of life represented. One of my favorite competitors was a gas station manager who competed in his gas station manager hat.

The commentary on the show is also awesome. Commentary such as:

"I do Ninja Warrior, therefore I am",

"... the epitome of living muscle",

"can he finally reel in the final stage and bring it on board?".

They also show bios on some of the competitors. There was a school custodian on one episode, and they showed him fixing things and also scrubbing a urinal.

I like the spirit of competition, everyone cheers each other on. The competitors never look like they are competing against each other; they all realize that they are competing against the course and not one another.

Here is a YouTube video of a guy doing well and going all the way through the 4 stages. The competitor has been on a few competitions I have seen - he is a fishing boat captain. I like him as a competitor. I have also seen videos of him helping other people when they aren't sure about an obstacle.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oco3lPfokaU&feature=related

Of course on a show like this you are bound to find stacks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6SA66tWoyI&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBww43jmtrI&feature=related

This post would have been made about an hour ago, but Ninja Warrior was on.

Cable success!!!

I successfully made a network cable! It involved lots of brown, white/brown, green and white/green, but I ordered them the right way, jammed it all in the head and crimped it and it worked! The pride is overwhelming. I actually am happy that it worked.

The secret was when I looked at the colored cables I took my first thought on the color of brown and green, then swapped it. Worked this time!

The things you find in a couch...

Firstly, Happy New Year to everyone!

Secondly, apologies to my regular followers; I know content has been thin (non-existent) lately.

Some of you may remember that back in November Liz and I got a couch from her grandmother. We later also got a matching chair. When we got them we were warned that they may be dusty, so we removed the pillow covers and washed and vacuumed them, and also beat out the cushions with a bat.

Today, I was sitting on the couch half asleep and I happened to reach down behind one of the cushions. Well, not just behind the cushion, but down underneath where the cushions sit and the back of the couch meets the bottom of the couch. "What the...?" was my first thought as I pulled out an envelope addressed to "Lewis for Senate" with Liz' grandfather's name and address on the back. The discovery prompted a thorough search and subsequent cleaning of the couch and chair. Here is what we ended up finding:

• a 60 page newsletter, Daughters of the American Revolution, from September/October 2005, folded in half,
• the reply envelope for "Lewis for Senate",
• a flyer for debt consolidation,
• a return envelope for Consumer Reports onhealth (a magazine)
• a list of things to do,
• a hair clip/comb,
• a hair tie,
• numerous newspaper clippings, some from 2004,
• several napkins,
• a bookmark,
• an Indian school pamphlet thing, with religious quote,
• food, including a largely intact pretzel, chocolate covered nut, popcorn and granola,
• our own ruler (must have fallen in there recently), and the motherload,
• a 13" pair of scissors!

The story behind the scissors and newspaper clippings is that Liz' grandfather had multiple pairs of these scissors, and would read newspapers on the couch all the time. When he found an article that someone he knew would like to read he would cut it out to give them. It was a running joke within the family that whenever Liz' grandfather asked for his scissors, these were the scissors he meant - not some little pair of regular scissors, but these massive ones. Not only did he cut newspaper clippings with them, legend has it (Liz told me) he also used to cut his nails with these scissors!

So, what's in your couch or chair?