Blancmange

Blancmange (French for "white food," it was originally a white pudding made from milk, sugar, and cornstarch or flour, but it comes in many flavors today) was also a FANTASTIC British New Wave band. They have a uniquely Indian sound, since they had some Indian members in the band.

This is one of my favorites. I used to hook my stereo up to my electric bass amplifier, and blast this tune to annoy my mother. It was quite effective. But I just love the tabla drums in this. This is the extended version of the song, which I had never heard before. The video is ehhh but the song is wonderful.
Blancmange, "Living On the Ceiling"

Here's another one of my favorites from them. I'm betting it's the expurgated version, but I've never heard the naughty version (if there is one). This video is from a live appearance on something like "Saturday Night Live," but it's fairly close to the album version.
Blancmange, "Feel Me"

This one is an old ABBA tune. I like Blancmange's treatment of it. They kept the flutey keyboard that ABBA used on the original. Not many people improve on ABBA tunes, since they were flawless to begin with IMHO, but this one is better for it.
Blancmange, "The Day Before You Came"

Here's a classic. He wakes up with an alligator in his bed! That's something that's somewhat likely to happen to me, where I live.
Blancmange, "What's Your Problem"

A nightly visitor who scares the crap out of me

Every night, about 3:30 AM, a great horned owl hoots in my ear.

"Who wh-who, who, who?" he asks. "Who wh-who, who, who?"

Because the bedroom window is open to take advantage of the cool ocean breeze, and the window is right over my head, it sounds like the owl is on the windowsill, a foot away.

Great horned owls are large. They stand a foot and a half tall. They are silent, with their huge eyes and their muffled wings... one can swoop down and part your hair and you will never even know he's coming until he's already passed.

I think he is hanging out in the trees on the southwestern corner of our lot. In that case, he's probably 50 feet away, or more. But every night, if I'm awake to hear him, it sounds like he's in bed with me.

(shudder)

While I am an alien, I'm not a "gray," which is a short, slender, genderless, large-eyed and large-headed drone-type of alien most commonly associated with UFOs. In UFO literature, gray aliens often mask the memory of their visit with a false memory of an owl.

Hmmm.

Erasure

This is one of my favorite tunes from Erasure. It speaks to me. I love the black-and-white starkness of the video, the gray canals and streets in Amsterdam (a lovely city, except for the grubby tourists like me), the lyrics. Am I right, am I wrong, or am I just dreaming?

I love the guy riding his bicycle off the street and into the canal. Splash!

Erasure, "Am I Right"

A flaming case of....

Poison ivy!!! Itch itch itch! Owwwwww! I am on steroids to treat it. I haven't had poison ivy in 25 years. I could never identify poison ivy in Boy Scouts, and I STILL can't identify it and avoid it now.

Sigh.

Alice Deejay

Here's an example of a one-hit wonder. Or a one-hit-album wonder. A bunch of hits off one album, and then she disappears. Probably retired from Holland to Suriname or someplace sunny. Some of her videos were shot in Schiphol Airport outside Amsterdam. I spent some time flying in and out of Holland so I recognized it.

Isn't it weird when you see a place on TV that you're familiar with? I did some work in Genoa, Italy back in 2000. In 2001, they had the World Trade Organization meeting there, and hooligans from all over Europe flocked there to protest. They had riots in the square right outside the building where I worked a year before. It was bizarre to see that on TV, a place on the other side of the world, and know exactly where that was because I'd been there.

One time on the Speed Channel, I saw an in-car camera shot from a Gran Prix race somewhere in a big city. After a minute or two, I realized I recognized the buildings. I looked for a street sign, and sure enough, one went flashing by, and I recognized it as downtown Houston, Texas. I had spent quite a lot of time sitting in traffic there. No wonder I recognized it! Again, very weird.

Alice Deejay, "Will I Ever"

Celebrity drug addicts

Apparently there is a television show now called "Celebrity Rehab." In conjunction with that, I saw a clip of actor Jeff Conaway. Conaway played Bobby Wheeler on "Taxi" in the 1970s, and then played Security Chief Zack Allan on "Babylon 5" in the 1990s. He's worked pretty consistently, and I always liked his characters that he played. But he's also been a coke addict and alcoholic for more than 20 years, the clip said.

Anyway, the clip showed Conaway being wheeled down a hospital hall into his latest stint in rehab, in a wheelchair, surrounded by nurses, and he was wailing. "Waaaaaaah!" Look how far I've sunk, said his cry. I'm desperate. I need help. I'm going through withdrawal.

I was ready to throw up. Here's this guy, who's been a constant drug abuser, abusive toward and a "user" of his friends who care about him, in and out of rehab, and once again he's back in rehab where it's all about him, he's the center of attention, only now there's a camera to capture it all and inflict it upon a TV audience. How selfish of him, I thought.

At the same time, I'm sure drug addiction is horrible. But he's had 20 years to kick it, and he hasn't. And now he's wailing as he's being taken back to rehab. Waaaah. Right.

I feel no sympathy.

Ivy

I love this tune... it speaks to something deep inside of me, something resonant and harmonious. I was excited when Volkswagen (I think) used this tune as a backdrop to a Jetta commercial, driving through pre-Hurricane-Katrina New Orleans' French Quarter in the rain. It was a beautiful image to accompany a beautiful song. Even if it WAS a Volkswagen (shudder).

Ivy, "Edge of the Ocean"

There are some other cool versions of this tune on the CD single. Some of them are bizarre. But her voice is always smooth, cool and soothing.

A trip to the arboretum

On Sunday, we went to the Sunken Gardens in a big city nearby. It's a 30-foot-deep sinkhole the size of several football fields. It was bought by a rich family in the 1930s, and they made it into a beautiful private tropical garden, which was later deeded to the city when the patriarch died. It has its own microclimate, a bit warmer and moister than the ground level, and it lets more tropical species of plants grow there than they otherwise would have.


A Chilean flamingo (Phoenicopterus chilensis).


More Chilean flamingos.


These are datura flowers, also called "angel's trumpet." (Brugmansia sauveolens) One touch of this flower to your lips, and you would die. It's extremely poisonous, of the nightshade family.

It's my macabre little daydream to have a garden populated entirely by poisonous plants. Of course, I'd need to fence it in with chicken wire around and over it, to keep unsuspecting animals or people from ingesting them accidentally. Note that I say accidentally.


A furry tree, covered with hair.


I forget what all these plants are. A lot of them were not labeled.


A type of orchid.


Hibiscus.


Don't know.


Pretty! The contrast hurts my eyes. But pretty.


Mmmmmmmm can't remember.


Flamingo down! Get a medic! Oh, wait, his knees are supposed to bend like that.


Dutchman's Pipe. HUGE blossoms. And my darling wife's hand, for scale.


Mmmm dunno. Cool explosion of color though.


I like the crisscrossing palm fronds.


A box turtle!


I'm guessing this is a screw pine. ;-) The trunk is really weird.


Mmmmm can't remember.


We rendezvoused with our nephew Andy and his girlfriend Terra there. They've been dating for three weeks now, never apart. But look at her body language, leaning away. I think he's starting to get on her nerves. ;-)

Everclear

I like this song. It used to have a lot of personal relevance for me, but I have been fortunate to have something of a relationship with my father, so I did not suffer nearly as much as lead singer Art Alexakis apparently did.

I like the way we see Art grow up, phasing through stages of childhood, while the adult Art is singing and walking around in the background.

Everclear, "Father Of Mine"


This is another favorite. Unfortunately there is no "real" video, just a clip from Letterman. The album version is much easier to understand and enjoy. But it's great tune, an indictment of the entire corrupt music industry, propelling talentless "artists" to superstardom overnight via mass marketing, and then discarding them just as quickly. That's why I don't watch "American Idol," because it invites you to be a willing participant in CREATING a talentless superstar. Bleah. It makes me want to hurl. But I like this tune's upbeat message, "They cannot hurt you unless you let them." I think that's true in most situations. You can only be a victim if you allow yourself to be.

Everclear, "One Hit Wonder"

Nickelback

Back when I still listened to regular radio (BS - before satellite), the DJs would never ever tell you who the artists were, or what the title of the song was. That's why I switched to XM.

I don't watch music videos, normally. Most of the ones that get airplay seem to be rap/R&B, and of course I don't listen to that, usually. So if I see a music video, it's either on the airplane when I'm traveling, or when I'm playing with the TV in the hotel room trying to find The History Channel.

I saw this one a few years ago, and never knew who it was. I did a Google search for "music video where she's dead, only he's dead" and I found it. I am beginning to think I can find anything on the internet just by asking a vague question.



Nickelback, "Someday"

I like the video. Don't care for the music or the band, but the video is cool.

Dubstar

Why do all the bands that I like invariably fragment and explode like a falling glass chandelier after only a couple of albums? Dubstar, a British band from the '90s, did that. Sarah Blackwood's voice is fantastic. So beautiful, so pure and clear. There's a wonderful tune called "Arc of Fire" that has no video, but this one is one of my favorites, and it DOES have a video.

Dubstar, "I Will Be Your Girlfriend"

And yes, I find the red bathroom REALLY annoying, since I'm color-blind. I would blunder around and crack my skull in a bathroom like that.

Christmas decorations

It took about 3 hours to set all this up. But it looks very nice now that I'm done. I know that I'm lucky - other folks in my neighborhood take days and days to set up their stuff. We like to keep it simple.

Wang Chung

Okay. Last video tonight, THEN I'm going to bed.

This song got too much airplay in the 1980s, but it was still a fun tune, and the video was REALLY cool. Yes, it can give you a headache. But it's interesting all the same. It's the same video shot at least three times over, and then the final master was made by switching rapidly between the three "takes."



Wang Chung, "Everybody Wang Chung Tonight"

It was made by Kevin Godley and Lol Creme, who also made the videos for The Police's "Synchronicity" album, including the irritating "Wrapped Around Your Finger" which featured a thousand burning candles. I always thought that video was overly pretentious. As it turned out, it was The Police's last album anyway. I figured it would be so, at the time.

Anyway, Creme went on to join the band The Art Of Noise in 1998. I like Art Of Noise, though you don't hear much from them anymore.

Small world.

Prodigy

I like Prodigy (or "The Prodigy," depending on which side of the Atlantic you're on). Their music is high-energy brain-damage noise, full of samples and more melody than many industrial bands. I can take about a half hour of it before I have to counterbalance it with ABBA or The Carpenters. ;-)

The "real" video gives me a headache, and is really annoying to watch, and also uses a different edit of the song which I don't like very much. So here's a different clip, with no video (just a boring picture of an emperor penguin), but it's the "correct" album version of the song.

Prodigy, "Spitfire"

"If I was in World War Two, they'd call me Spitfire!" which refers, I think, to the famous Supermarine Spitfire fighter plane used by the British in World War Two to great effect against the Germans' ME-109 and FW-190. Both German planes were faster and more powerful than the Spitfire, but the British had the home field advantage, and British pilots who were shot down over England mostly walked or hitched a ride home, while the German pilots who were shot down generally never got home. The Luftwaffe learned their lesson in June 1940, and never again tried to invade England.

Why am I up so late?

Because I'm f*cking SICK. Arrrgh. I was in serious stomach and back pain this evening. We had contemplated going to the holiday parade downtown tonight, but last year it was kinda blah and my darling wife had a splitting headache, and the experience of loud bands and car horns and fire engine sirens blaring for an hour really left a bad taste in my wife's mouth. So we didn't go this year.

Good thing - I've just thrown up three times. I never ever do that. Must have been, two, three years since I did that last. Arrgh. But I feel much better now. No pain anymore in my back or in my stomach. I've been sitting up two or three hours after MDW went to bed, trying to ease the pain, and fighting online while I wait.

So. Now that I am better, I am going to lay down my blaster rifle in "Star Wars: Battlefront 2," leave my online team in the lurch, and go to bed.

More Donna Lewis

I didn't realize that my friend Heike loves Donna Lewis too! We have so much music in common, it's scary.

I always liked this tune. I don't think there's a "real" video for it, though.

Donna Lewis, "Without Love"

On second thought....

A few days ago, I wrote a post about a dear friend of mine, who generally never reads this blog. At that point, it had been a week or so since I'd heard from my friend. Then I started to worry that for once, my friend HAD read this blog, seen my post, and gotten pissed off. So I took it down.

It was interesting to realize how important this friendship is to me. I was genuinely concerned that I had risked my friendship with that post, even though it was written only in the vaguest of terms.

Thankfully, I heard from my friend yesterday. It had just been a busy couple of weeks, that's all, nothing to worry about. And no, my friend apparently did NOT read my post.

Whew.

That will make me think twice before I write about my friends again, at least concerning sensitive subjects. ;-)

Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving feast with our nephew Andy, his girlfriend Terra, and his roomie Josh.


My darling wife used her great grandmother's china and silver. We were verrrrry careful in handling it.


I admit, it sure was pretty.


This pattern makes me miss my indestructible, white patternless Corelle glass plates. I bought them when I was a bachelor. I bought white no-pattern place settings because, I reasoned, it would never be a problem matching the pattern (because patterns come and go, in and out of style). And I would never get bored with plain old white.

When I got married, we sold it all at a garage sale. My wife likes patterns. And her stuff was admittedly much nicer than mine.


Andy and Terra. We like Terra. She's got a good head on her shoulders. Andy seems to like her a lot. I hope they stay together.


We gave Andy his Christmas present early. Josh guessed that it was a microwave. I would have kicked him, but he was too far away.


Josh, like a kitten or a puppy, likes to play with the wrapping paper.


Wow! A microwave! Who would have guessed? Um, Josh.


We gave the boys a shopping spree among our garage sale items for next weekend.


Terra sat it out. She was tired. She's a vegetarian, so she couldn't blame the L-triptophan in the turkey for making her tired. ;-)

Beachness

Crab traps and sunsets and sandfleas on beaches... (these are a few of my favorite things)


We managed to get the float off this one. We have a float tree, covered with these.


Couldn't do anything with this one though.

Adam Ant

Adam Ant, "Goody Two Shoes"

I can't believe the huge eyeglasses the one woman is wearing. I've never seen glasses that large.

I hope someone buys my rental house

I'm used to selling a house in three days flat. But I'm also used to a seller's market that's really hot, not a buyer's market that's slow, where buyers can pick and choose. Our rental house has been on the market for 60 days. (Currently, after the sub-prime mortgage meltdown, the average time on the market is something like 270 days.) But we're spoiled, and we want some action. So we decided that we didn't like the photos that were on the Multiple Listing Service for our house, and we took new ones.















The wide-angle lens on my Kodak camera really comes in handy when taking shots of interiors.

We also lowered the price $10,000, to put it in a lower price bracket. Hopefully we'll get some more traffic. Because I'm tired of being a landlord, and rent prices are so low now, you can't keep the scumbags out. So people rent with a deposit, stay for a couple months, never make a rent payment, trash the place, you evict them, clean up, and try again. That's no fun. So the heck with it.

I am lucky, though. I know other landlords who have four or five empty properties, and they have to pay mortgages on all of them, to the tune of $3000+ a month. Ick. I can carry this property myself until we sell it, so it's not such a big deal. But I would still be happy to be rid of it.

With all the tourists here, someone WILL buy my house by April. I know they will. By visualizing my desired outcome, I will create the reality that I seek.

No update on Tami

A few weeks ago, I mentioned that our friend Tami is dying.

I have not heard any new information about Tami. Her parents haven't returned our calls.

To me, Tami is equivalent to Schrodinger's cat, which refers to a thought experiment where a cat is locked in box along with a radioactive material, a geiger counter tube hooked to a solenoid-controlled hammer, and a jar of cyanide. If a particle of the radioactive material decays and emits a particle, then the hammer is tripped and shatters the jar, killing the cat. If a particle does not decay, then the cat is alive.

You don't know whether the cat is alive or dead until you open the box, thereby measuring what happened. This is equivalent to the theory of indeterminacy, where you don't know where the particle is until you measure it. According to quantum theory, the cat is both alive AND dead, existing as two separate waveforms, until you open the box and observe the cat, at which point one waveform collapses and the other one remains.

Now, of course my attempt to apply Schrodinger's hypothesis to Tami is a logical fallacy. SOMEONE is/was observing Tami, so as soon as she lives or dies, it will be observed and there will be no dual waveform. But in my mind, not knowing Tami's status, it is possible that she is alive OR dead, or both at the same time.

Hopefully I will find out soon whether she is alive or dead.

My Baby Loves a Bunch of Authors

Moxy Fruvous, a hilarious Canadian comedy band (now defunct) from the Toronto suburb of Thornhill. This is "My Baby Loves a Bunch of Authors."

Chainsaw safety

This past weekend, I cut down a bunch of saplings and trees that were invading our empty lot. They are vicious nasty spreading things, and needed to be eliminated quickly, before they could spread more seeds.

I used my favorite outdoor tool - my chainsaw.

My darling wife was upset with me that I started working without her. She is convinced that I will hurt myself.

Nonsense, I say. I have spent many hours learning about chainsaw safety from such things as the "Evil Dead" movies, "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" (the original AND the lame remake), and video games like "Doom." I certainly know how to a handle a chainsaw. And sometimes swinging it through the air like an enraged orangutan is appropriate, depending on what you're cutting (like zombies, for example).

Anyway. No mishaps the other day, despite my safety "training." There's always tomorrow. ;-)

A flock of doves

I am watching a flock of doves root around in my backyard. Cooing and fluttering, they quietly stroll around in the underbrush in the fading afternoon light, grazing.

Suddenly they all flutter away, crisscrossing up into the trees, giggling and cooing with their tiny bird voices. Slowly, quietly, the feral black cat who lives near us comes strolling absentmindedly along on his appointed rounds, paying no attention to the doves that skitter away, out of his reach.

Clearly he has other things to think about.

Blatant abuse of musical instruments

Victor Borge once said that "The only difference between a violin and a viola is that the viola burns longer."

Here's a video in that same vein. I have never seen a baritone saxophone abused so. Nor a piano, or an upright bass. I have played most of the instruments in the video, though I truly suck at the piano, unlike my friend Becki, who is a virtuoso. It just seems sick and wrong.... like a musical "A Clockwork Orange." Truly British.



The Art Of Noise, "Close to the Edge"

I DO have a chainsaw. I play that as well.

Making the rounds

I traded emails with one of my cousins, and actually talked for a half an hour or 45 minutes EACH with my father and my sister today. That's my familial contact for the quarter, really. It was very nice to talk with all of them. My dad's 80th birthday is coming up in April. I volunteered our house as the nexus for the celebration, if people want to come from NYC, Dallas, and Cincinnati. We'll see.

32-track CD stereo

in my dream this morning.



Erasure, "Stay With Me".

I was walking through a nice airport, which was really crowded with people. It reminded me of the mall section of Minneapolis' airport. And I came upon a central atrium with a piano, and hundreds of people were gathered around, sitting, kneeling, and listening raptly as a man played this song on the piano, and sang. He had a small boy on his lap as he played.

It was a strange dream.

Theyyyyyy're baaaaaaack!

When the sirens scream constantly, and ambulances and fire engines go racing down the road every day, you know what it is.....

The tourists and snowbirds are back.

Usually it's car accidents. Most of them are old, and they can't see. It's amazing that they can get their big-ass car on the highway in New Jersey or Michigan and aim it south consistently enough to get here.

Sometimes it's heart attacks. In which case the ambulances run without sirens, since it's not such a hurry... they're probably dead already.

But someone else is also back....

The alligators! This one is in the pond down the street from us.

Housecleaning today

This morning I am watching my darling wife cleaning out all the extra stuff we have. I am putting off getting dressed, because then I will have to help. ;-)

We have tons of stuff that fit easily into a 3,000 square foot house. However, our current house is 1,600 square feet. The math doesn't really work. So we are thinning out our stuff. Old videos, knicknacks, the odd piece of furniture or artwork; all is going into our garage sale at our rental house in two weeks.

Many trips back and forth, back and forth. Soon it will be over. I hope. I hate garage sales. She loves them, though. ;-)

Silly Christmas songs

Boymongoose, "12 Days of Christmas"

I heard this on one of XM satellite radio's Christmas channels today. (There are five Christmas channels. This is one of the weirder ones.) I just busted out laughing, since I have hung out with a bunch of Indians over the years from the states of Gudjarat and Maharashtra (both in the western part of India).

Donna Lewis

I love Donna Lewis' voice. She's a former music teacher who made it big in the 90s with a couple hits, and then faded into obscurity again.

I don't understand what's the deal with the boots in this video. But I think it's interesting that the German word for "glove" is "handschuh." She's wearing shoes on her hands. She must be German! No, I think she is Welsh.

Donna Lewis, "I Love You, Always Forever"

Before "Chuck," there was Cake

I'm so happy that the TV show "Chuck" chose to use a song by the band Cake as its theme song. It's one of my favorites, even though on "Chuck," they cut out all the vocals.

I like John McCrea's voice (he's the lead singer). He doesn't so much sing as speak his lines. But I like his deadpan, declamatory delivery. And of course, this song is a scream.

There is no original video for this song, but I found a hilarious one that features Sailor Moon. I never watched Sailor Moon but I like the way the video syncs up to what he's talking about in the song.

Cake, "Short Skirt / Long Jacket"

Bouncy, crunchy, and all-around fun

With some gospel or something thrown in at the end, I'm not sure.

"Overweight" by Blue October

Why I should learn how to operate our answering machine

I don't check the messages on the home answering machine, because most everyone knows to call me on my cell.

Today, my darling wife played back the messages which had accumulated during the week of her absence. I had let them accumulate, because anyone who calls our home is invariably calling for her.

Except for last Friday night, when my neighbor Bob called me and asked me if I wanted to go to the gun show on Saturday. Which of course, I didn't, because I didn't bother to listen to any of the messages. I don't even know how to operate the machine. ;-)

So Saturday came and went. I got up late, I laid around, I did laundry, I ran errands.

Sunday I talked with Bob, and I never mentioned the gun show (because I did not know about it), and neither did he. I'm sure he thought I was a jerk for never responding to his call.

So today, when my darling wife played the message for me, I promptly picked up my cellphone, called Bob, and apologized for never responding to his message. "That's okay," he said. "I figured you didn't want to go. And the show sucked anyway - there were no vendors who had bullets or gunpowder, which is what I needed."

"Good," I said. "Let's go to the gun show this weekend?"

"I'll let you know!" he said.

Bob is a good neighbor, and a nice friend. I'm lucky to have him nearby. Maybe I should learn to operate my home answering machine. Or more likely, maybe he'll call my cell next time he wants to do something together.

A new Bible

And it came to pass that the Archangel Guen brought the disciples of the Lord a new tool to work with, an Access Database. "Take this database which my servant Guen has brought you, and track therein all of thy Work Instructions, and Quick Reference Cards, and Simulations, and PowerPoint Overviews, and Training Plans, and Exercises, and Data Sheets, and any other beasts that I might deem thee worthy of creating for Me," saith the Lord.

The Archangel Guen smiled serenely.

The disciples eyed the database warily.

"Yea, verily, what the f*ck is this?" asked Thomas, whose appointed job it was within the group of disciples to doubt.

"Shush," said Peter, "if you know what's good for you. Just take it."

And so the disciples of the Lord went forth among the Chicagoans, and created all manner of Work Instructions, and Quick Reference Cards, and Simulations, and PowerPoint Overviews, and Training Plans, and Exercises, and Data Sheets. And in the database, they tracked them all. Endlessly. Ad nauseam.

And the disciples of the Lord saw that they spent a lot of time in the database, tracking all manner of beasts, and did not actually spend enough time tending the beasts themselves. And they were wroth.

Nevertheless, they had faith in the plan that the Lord had set down before them through Her servant Guen. Surely they would regain at the back end, generating the Training Manuals and Course Curriculum, all the time that they had spent tracking the beasts up front.

Surely.

You can't tell them anything

Ever watch a friend get treated badly by their partner, and your friend can't acknowledge that it's happening, or see that things are not right? You can point out the elephant in the living room, but your friend gets angry at YOU for pointing it out, not angry at their abusive partner. You can't tell them anything, because it just gets you in trouble.

I hate standing there watching abuse take place, and my friend is oblivious, or accepting of it because they think it's normal. Or, when my friend's abusive partner tries to rope me in on THEIR side, to justify their bad behavior. Like THAT'S going to happen.

It's a delicate balance that you have to walk. You try to spend time with your friend but NOT their partner. You try to talk about everything BUT the problem. You try to commiserate with your friend if he/she expresses frustration, but if you commiserate too much, you cross the line, and they get angry at you.

Sometimes it's easier just to pull away from both people, because it hurts too much to watch. All you can do is hope to be there to catch your friend when he or she falls apart. You try to be as much of a friend as you can be, without damaging yourself or getting hit by the shrapnel when your friend's abusive relationship explodes.

On the one hand, you tend to gravitate toward people who are broken in the same way you are. On the other hand, if you've BEEN where they are, you want to help them because you have done the work, done the therapy to help you see the problem and get yourself out of it. And you want to help others who have the same problem. But, often, they can't be helped. They must walk the same tortured path that you walked, to get out of their pit of despair.

There are no shortcuts in healing.

"Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon" Day

OMG, Nicholas Lea, who played Alex Krycek (a horrible, evil, scheming, delightfully loathsome assassin who worked for The Cigarette Smoking Man in "X-Files") is now playing a PRIEST on "Men In Trees."


That's as crazy as seeing Angela Lansbury play a horrible, nasty Communist agent in the original "The Manchurian Candidate" (1962), then play kindly old Jessica Fletcher the "Murder, She Wrote" television series from 1984 to 1996. It makes my brain hurt.


Lauren Tom, who played Amy Wong, the spoiled rich brat on "Futurama," is also on "Men In Trees." Her voice is just as irritating. She also played Minh Souphanousinphone, an obnoxious Laotian woman, on "King of the Hill." She always plays over-the-top Asian women. She's very funny.


And Abraham Benrubi, who played the delightfully thick Larry Kubiac on "Parker Lewis Can't Lose" (a "Ferris Bueller's Day Off"-style TV show in the early 1990s about a smart kid and his friends outwitting authority figures in high school) is also on "Men In Trees." I loved "Parker Lewis Can't Lose." I will have to see if it's on DVD.


And Cynthia Stevenson, who played George's mom on "Dead Like Me" (a great show about a dead girl who collects souls as a part of a team of grim reapers) is ALSO on "Men In Trees." I loooove Cynthia Stevenson.

Today clearly is "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon" Day, where everyone I see on TV is someone I know from another series or movie. That's because everyone in Hollywood has worked with, or has worked with someone who worked with, actor Kevin Bacon.

It's a small world in Hollywood. Thankfully the Hollywood writers are on strike, so hopefully these familiar faces showing up will STOP showing up soon, and we'll be back to reruns, which assault us for three-quarters of the calendar year anyway. ;-)

A wondrous gift

My friend Ed (of Ed and Rosemarie) called me up yesterday while I was shopping at Target. He's the one with the snaggle-teeth in my Halloween dinner photos a few weeks ago. (What is it that makes all Targets smell the same? The cleaning fluid they use on the floors? I don't know. But it was that train of thought that was jarringly derailed when Ed called me in the grocery section.)

Ed told me that he turned 70 on Thursday. I wished him a happy birthday and apologized that I'd missed it. (I don't track anyone's birthday except for my wife's. I don't even commemorate my sister's or father's birthday, nor even my own. But that's just the way I am. When you get to be 432 years old, as I am, birthday are kind of irrelevant. It's just another day. Every day that you wake up is a good day. And, as the Klingon saying goes, "Today is a good day to die.")

Ed said that he answered the doorbell, and a man was standing there with a clipboard in his hand. "Sign here," said the man. "What for?" asked Ed. "This," said the man, jerking a thumb over his shoulder at a brand-new pearl-colored 2008 Lincoln Town Car parked in the driveway, with a big red ribbon bow on the roof.


(vehicle is shown smaller than actual size, which is ginormous)

Ed was flabbergasted. He said, "That's not for me." "Yes, it is," said the man, offering Ed an envelope.

In the envelope was a letter from Ed's son-in-law and daughter. Ed's son-in-law is a wealthy tennis pro in California. His wife is Ed's eldest daughter, I think. The letter thanked Ed for being so generous to them over the years, and thanking Ed for all that he's done for them, and that they hoped Ed would accept this car as a tiny token of their gratitude, which could never equal Ed's kindness and generosity, but they hoped he could appreciate it and keep it.

Ed was floored. The deliveryman laughed. He said the car had been shipped all the way from California, because the local dealers here, with whom Ed's son-in-law had tried to arrange a purchase by phone, were jerks. So Ed's son-in-law called up a local dealer in California who knew him, and worked it out. The car came with plates, title and taxes all paid for. All Ed had to do was sign.

The deliveryman was excited. Ed was excited. Even the neighborhood's gate guard was excited. He had advised the deliveryman to unload the car from the flatbed truck and drive it into the neighborhood, because if the truck had driven through there with the car on top, the car would have been scratched up by the low-hanging trees. So that's what the deliveryman did.

The car is now parked in Ed's garage, with the bow still on it. I told Ed to take pictures. Now he has three cars; the 2008 Lincoln, a 1990 Volvo 850 sedan, and a 1970 Mercedes diesel sedan that was a deceased friend's. Ed will get rid of the Volvo, since it IS a Volvo, and is therefore not so reliable.

What an amazing gift, I told Ed. How nice that people love you and care for you enough to do something like that for you. He was flabbergasted also. He was so pleased, he just had to tell somebody about it.

I'm glad he told me about it.

Great DEVO videos

One of the most danceable DEVO tunes: "That's Good." When it came out, I was 14, and completely unaware of the blatant sexual symbolism in the video. I didn't care, I just liked the music.

"Beautiful World" was another great tune. I think this is one of their best. The video is a wonderful juxtaposition to the lyrics. All those 1950s and 1960s video clips, and the educational film about radiation sickness at the end. Interesting.

Schadenfreude

I think it's amusing to see Hillary Clinton being savaged by her equally-weak-kneed but less power-mad rivals in the Democratic party. While they tear their front-runner down, it just makes the entire leftist crew more vulnerable to a "real" candidate. If only there were one. Sigh.

Run Silent, Run Deep

I'm watching "Run Silent, Run Deep" on TV. This is a CLASSIC submarine movie. Clark Gable, Burt Lancaster, a bunch of others, 1958 black-and-white. Crazy Clark Gable wants to go back and hunt down the Japanese who sunk his previous sub out from under him. Burt Lancaster wants to keep his Captain Ahab from getting himself and the rest of the crew killed. Great stuff. Pretty good special effects and model work also. You won't find a whole lot better until you see "The Hunt for Red October," which I think still sets the standard for submarine-movie SFX.


The USS Redfish (SS-395, a 1944 Balao-class diesel-electric sub) played the USS Nerka in the film. I love those WWII subs. They are so cool-looking. I've been on the USS Pampanito (SS-383, a similar, 1943 Balao-class sub) in San Francisco. That sub was featured in the film "Down Periscope" (1996), where it was towed with a hawser to make it look like it was under way (it cannot sail under its own power anymore). I've also been on the U-505 at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry. After seeing "Das Boot" (a depressing 1981 German film about the waning days of the WWII submarine war in the Atlantic), and then being on the U-505, I realized that the American sub crews had it much easier. American subs were relatively more spacious, reliable, and comfortable then either the German or Japanese subs of the era. I think that's still true today.

Futurama "Where No Fan Has Gone Before"

Oh my god, "Futurama" season 4, episode 11 is "Where No Fan Has Gone Before." It's a spoof of so many different things from the original Star Trek series and movies, it is hilarious. It features most of the original crew's voices, too - William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, Nichelle Nichols, George Takei, and Walter Koenig. Plus Jonathan Frakes from "Star Trek: The Next Generation." It's making fun of both the show AND the actors' personal lives, while parodying parts of many different Star Trek episodes, characters and scenes. They even spoof the music AND the ending credits (still shots of the episode).

I am laughing til I'm hoarse. Now I can't breathe.

What to do, what to do...

I was up til midnight last night, getting some work done for my boss who needed it by the end of the day. (Well, 11:59 PM is the end of the day.) Then I slept in.

Today is the last day I have on my own, before my darling wife returns. I could do so many different things, I am paralyzed with the choices.

• Drive up to the nearest big city and go shopping for computer games that I don't need, can't afford, don't have the hardware to run, and don't have time to play anyway
• Wander around the flea market, looking at junk I don't need
• Take a hike for a mile or two on the beach (I really DO need to do that, it's the only exercise I get)
• Do the laundry (which I'm doing now, the 3rd load today)
• Do the dishes (which I'm doing now)
• Mow the lawns (neither of them need it at either house - it's so cold lately, in the 50s, that the plants and grasses have stopped growing for the season)
• Wash the cars (ehhhh, maybe)
• Lay around and watch Season 4 of "Futurama" (which I'm doing now)
• Blog (which I'm doing now)
• Keep the cats company (Jesse is lying on me, jealous that I am paying attention to the computer and not to him)
• Go see a movie (I have to check and see if anything's even on that I want to see. Probably not.)
  

Hmmm. I will have achieved several things on the list by the end of today. I may even get dressed and go outside. Or not.

"Serenity"

I love the movie, "Serenity." It's based on the TV series "Firefly" which featured Jewel Staite as Kaylee the engineer (a "prairie harpy," I think Captain Mal once called her, before he got to know her.) One of the reasons that I like the new series "Chuck" is that it has Adam Baldwin in it, who played the scurrilous Jayne on "Firefly." He is SUCH a hoot. He was on "X-Files" for a few episodes too.

I also love the blooper reel from "Serenity." It helps to have seen the movie, but it's a scream even if you haven't seen it. Summer Glau, who played the teenaged psychic girl River in both "Firefly" and "Serenity," (and I believe plays a Terminator in the new "Sarah Connor Chronicles" series that is debuting in January 2008) sometimes flubbed her lines. At some point, it became a running joke on the "Serenity" set that when anyone forgot their lines or when something went wrong, everyone would yell "Summer!!!" It's very funny.

Nerd babes

The "Firefly" TV series, and then the "Serenity" movie, featured Jewel Staite as Kaylee, the ship's engineer. She is simultaneously fragile yet strong, innocent yet sexy. I love her voice... it's very well-modulated.

I was flipping channels and stopped on "Stargate: Atlantis," which I tend not to watch. I like the original "Stargate: SG-1," because it has Richard Dean Anderson as the crusty colonel Jack O'Neill, and of course, resident hottie Amanda Tapping as Dr. Samantha Carter.


I didn't realize, however, that "Stargate: Atlantis" now has Amanda Tapping on it also. I will have to watch now.

And having Amanda Tapping AND Jewel Staite on the same show is any nerd's wet dream, I think.

Babes and guns (human and alien guns, even better!). Sci-Fi channel is a master of the formula.

One of the coolest music videos ever made

I don't own any of A-ha's albums, but I probably should. I thought this video was amazing. It still is, all these years later.
A-ha, "Take On Me"

Teach your children well

This is my friend Heike and her daughter Sophia. Heike gets to work at home a lot now, since she had Sophia. She's teaching Sophia how to use the computer, and taking pictures with the built-in camera. ;-) Isn't Sophia cute, with her knit pink beret?

Next thing you know, Sophia will be a terror on the computer, wiping out opponents in Halo 5 or Tekken 7. Then she'll be swiping the car keys.

How quickly children grow! You have to freeze them in your mind, to remember how they were, because if you watch them carefully, you can see them growing and changing right before your eyes.

Heike is lucky to be a mother. I am lucky to be childless, and to appreciate Heike's joy without any of the work. ;-)

And justice is served

I am very pleased that in our local election, two city council members and the mayor were ousted by their challengers. The voters were upset with the way that the city council kept saying "yes" to any developer who wanted to put in a shopping mall or build a huge high-rise apartment building. This is the jungle. Such development is inappropriate. So the voters threw the bums out. Which is good, because I, living across the border in another jurisdiction, was not allowed to vote on them. Darn it.

And, an amendment to the county charter to require a 4/5ths supermajority vote on the planning commission to make any changes to the zoning codes also passed, pissing off the developers, who campaigned long and hard to convince people to vote against the amendment. I'm glad enough people voted yes (2 to 1). The developers even filed a last-minute lawsuit to try to get the amendment pulled off the ballot. That really irritated a lot of people. I figured, if the developers don't want it, then it must be a GOOD thing.

Unfortunately, the voters decided to extend a penny sales tax for 15 years. It funds public school construction and such. I think that schools should sell bonds for their construction, so that the people who want to support it will buy the bonds. The rest of us can tell the schools to take a flying leap. Alas, it was not to be.

TIme to clean my dirty Illudium PU-36 Explosive Space Modulator

It's been dirty since I went shooting on Sunday. It's been awhile since I fired it... I think the chamber is dirty, because periodically the spent casing would stick in it, and then the action would try to load another live round on top of the spent casing. That generally doesn't work too well.

I will clean it in the living room, taking advantage of my darling wife's absence. (There's no TV in the garage.)

Rosie is canned before she starts

Wednesday's ugly rumor was that professional madwoman Rosie O'Donnell was going to get a show on MSNBC, one of the least-watched cable news networks. Today's marginally-happier rumor is that MSNBC is withdrawing the offer.

I expect that they didn't want to alienate their last three viewers and make them leave too.

Writer's strike? What writer's strike?

Big deal, so the starving writers in Hollywood have gone on strike, shutting down all new production of most scripted TV programming except for reality TV shows and sports shows.

Snooooooze.

I remember the last writer's strike, back in 1988. I was in university then, and I didn't watch TV because I didn't have time. I think they were on strike for a few months. It didn't matter to me then, and it doesn't matter to me now, even though I now have time to watch TV.

Why?

One word - DVDs. I have a ton of them. Some of them, I have not seen yet, like all of Season 4 of "Futurama".... Seasons 1 through 3 of "Forever Knight"... Season 1 of "Angel," Season 3 of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," and all of "Boston Legal" (though that's my wife's birthday gift - I can't open them).

So. I don't really care how long the writers stay on strike. Most of the schlock they churn out these days is just rehashed from better programs in the past. Might as well watch those reruns, which were the source of today's "inspiration." I might get to see all those episodes of "The Love Boat," "Mork & Mindy" and "The Rockford Files" that I missed when I was a kid.

Turnabout is fair play

Usually I travel, and I'm far away from home. I'm busy all day, busy in the evenings, and although I miss my darling wife who remains at home, it's not very difficult because I'm so distracted by work and the little nitpicking points of travel.

However, I am working at home for three months, and this week, my darling wife is traveling. She is back in Denver visiting all her friends during her second annual pilgrimage. It's "girl week" for her. And this time, I get to be home alone.

I don't like it. It's lonely.

I never truly appreciated how lonely it can be, to be home all week with no one to talk to but the cats. Bless their hearts, they try, but years of one-sided discussions and debates have not managed to endow them with the power of speech. At best, they yowl with good inflection but poor articulation. You can get the gist of what they're saying, but since they're basically two-year-old babies with brains the size of a grape, their thoughts and concepts are not very well-formulated.

Anyway. It's lonely. And I'm ready for my darling wife to return. Alas, she will not return until Sunday. On the one hand, I will be able to get much more work done. And I will not have to watch one minute of Home & Garden TV. Because I know the first thing she will do when she gets back is to lock the remote back onto HGTV. I will have to get my History Channel fix quickly, while she's gone.

But I will be glad when she is back.

It's a very very Mad World

I remember when Tears for Fears released their first album, "The Hurting" in 1983. I really enjoyed "Mad World" back then. I liked the percussion and the discordant guitar. The video is quite lame, I admit, even by '80s standards.

Tears for Fears, "Mad World"

Then, in Toronto, I saw this really dreamy piano cover of the same song, what, 23 years later? What a visual statement in this video! I think it's really cool. Don't much care for the singing, but the piano treatment is interestingly gentle.

Gary Jules, "Mad World"

The wrong way to be romantic

I heard a stupid commercial on the radio, for a jeweler, where the man bought some expensive earrings for the woman and hid them in the microwave, and she almost nuked them. They were telling the story to their friends. It was supposed to be funny. I found it irritating.

(Pardon me if any of the following things have happened to you, and they turned out well. I would like to hear your success story, because yours would be the first.)

The commercial on the radio made me think about stupid ways to be demonstrative to a woman, like proposing to her in front of a crowd of people, putting her on the spot and making her hesitant to say "no" in front of all those people. I think that's very rude to do that to a woman.

Or hiding an engagement ring somewhere, like in a microwave, or in the bathroom where it can go down the drain, or in a wine glass where it can be swallowed accidentally. Such things, I think, are idiotic.

Be a man. Ask her quietly, seriously, when you are both alone and she can say "no" without feeling pressured. Give her a serious gift like a ring or expensive jewelry in a serious setting, when you are alone together, and you can talk and discuss it. Don't hide it where you think she will find it. It seldom turns out well; the more expensive the gift, the more likely it will be lost or damaged unless you physically place it in her hands.

Anyway. I have heard and seen many horror stories about such "romantic" situations that went horribly wrong. I think the best way to be romantic is to do it in private, when you can focus on each other and be yourselves. But that's just my opinion.

An inauspicious start to my day

• Cleaned up cat puke, thankfully without stepping in it
• Set off the panic button on my car by accident at 7:00 AM, which I'm certain that my neighbors in this quiet place did NOT appreciate
• Went to vote (I was the second voter to show up), and the optical scanner refused to accept our ballots. It was turned on, but it wouldn't feed through the scanner and then drop the ballot in the box. The poll workers diddled with it for a minute, and then just told us to drop our ballots in the box underneath the scanner. Somehow I don't think our votes will ever be counted. This is typical for our area. Last election, there was much whining that the electronic touch-screen voting machines had no paper audit trail, and so the electronic results were suspect. Now it's all paper-based fill-in-the-bubble scannable sheets (no more punch cards or "hanging chads"). But still, if the scanner doesn't work, then I don't have much faith that the votes will be recorded. It's frustrating.
  

I got a dose of culture today, and it hurt

I went and saw some art at the art festival today. It was nice, but it was pretty much the same as it always is. It's all too much money for me, so I never buy anything. But I like to look.

There's a few artists that I like.


http://ilkindeniz.com/



http://www.lynnkavanaugh.com/abstract1.htm


http://www.alliageart.com/page7.html


Lucy Phelps doesn't have a website. She's local and makes stuff from scrap lucite, which she gets from her other business, making some stuff or other from lucite. It's really pretty stuff. But not very cat-proof.

I sent hate mail to the State Department

I heard about a bunch of whiny "diplomats" who had a town hall meeting at the State Department in Washington this past week. They spent the meeting whining and complaining about the proposed possibility that, to fill 48 diplomatic positions in Iraq, some of them would be drafted if not enough people volunteered to go.

Wah.

These government employees, feeding at the public trough filled with my tax dollars, signed an agreement when they took their jobs that they would serve their country, and work where they were assigned. Well, if you get assigned to Iraq, you have to work there. They are whining that it's a death sentence.

Oh please. Three diplomatic people (one diplomat and two security guards) have been killed in Iraq in the past four YEARS. You have a bigger chance of being killed in Washington DC, at that rate. Or California.

Pathetic ninnies. So I sent them hate mail. Under a fake email address that I use for such things. (I'm not completely stupid.) It irritates me that such slothful scum are representing this great nation. They don't deserve the honor.

A good deed for the week

Okay, maybe for the month. I don't do that many good deeds, at least not deliberately. ;-)

I was coasting down the highway yesterday in heavy traffic on the way home from the airport, and I noticed that the lady in front of me had a right rear tire that was nearly flat. We were miles from anywhere, and if she drove much longer on that flat tire, she would ruin the tire and possibly her wheel. So I pulled abreast of her, honked and motioned for her to roll down the window. Apparently I don't know how to make that motion properly, because she looked confused and then pulled over to the side of the road. I pulled over too, jogged back to her car as she and her male passenger got out, and told her that her tire was nearly flat. She didn't seem to understand, so I took her around the car and showed her the tire, which was bulging dangerously. I suggested that she put air in it as soon as possible. She seemed to get it then, and thanked me. I smiled and went back to my car, got in and drove away.

If I had had a tire pump in my car, I would have aired it up for her, but I didn't. I thought it was enough that I could save her the expense of a new tire by warning her that it was in danger of being ruined.

Earlier that same day, on the way to the airport, a blue Cadillac passed us at high speed in the breakdown lane, passing everyone on the right, then weaving in and out of traffic in a dangerous fashion. Eventually he came up against a knot of cars ahead of him, and had to slow down enough that we could catch up to him. My wife took down his plate number while I called the highway patrol number and reported him. In our state, if someone reports you for aggressive driving, the police send you a nastygram by mail, warning you to knock that shit off. I think it stays in your file, too, so it will go more harshly with you if you later cause an accident or if the police catch you doing the same thing again.

Two good deeds, maybe. That's it, I'm done for the month.

All glory to the Hypnotoad!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMvdethwMoQ

On "Futurama," the Hypnotoad has his own TV channel. It's quite addictive, apparently.

An irritating Verizon salesman

Hello, I'd like to change my long distance service to the unlimited long distance plan, please.
Of course, sir. Can I interest you in our special package where you can get phone, cable, and internet all in one?
No, thanks. I have Comcast television and internet.
Did you know that our internet service has a blazing fast 3 megabits per second download speed?
Yes, that's why I got Comcast. Comcast has 6 megabits per second. I need the fastest possible connection for my work.
Our package will save you 30 dollars a month over competing packages.
It doesn't matter. I have my Comcast service and I'm keeping it.
Most people find 3 megabits per second plenty fast enough, sir.
I'm sure they do. But I need the fastest possible service for my work.
Three megabits per second is really fast.
Six megabits is faster. About twice as fast.
It's a really excellent deal, sir.
So you've said. But I don't need it. I have internet service already.
With our internet plus cable service, you'll get over 140 channels of television, and high-speed internet, all on one bill!
You're not listening to me. I don't want your internet service. I have internet service that's twice as fast as yours.
Our FIOS fiber-optic service is even faster than Comcast.
I know. And it's not available in my area.
Ummm... yep, you're right. Are you sure I can't switch you to our three-in-one package?
NO! And I'm tired of discussing it! Just switch my long distance and be done with it.
Yes sir.

The actual conversation took about 20 minutes. I've summed it up here, with all the frustration but only about one-fifth of the tedium. I was ready to kill him. I have never talked to someone so infuriatingly dense yet persistent. If I didn't actually need something from him, I would have hung up on him.

Okay, I SHOULD be catching up on work...

...but I'm surfing videos on YouTube instead. I'm surprised that there's so many out there. At least it's not ALL jihadi terrorist videos.


I think Keisha Chante is from Toronto. They sure played her a bunch when I was there.

DEVO is still as energetic and crazy as they ever were. I love this cover of The Rolling Stones' "I Can't Get No Satisfaction." The guy driving the car is Mark (the singer's) dad, who played General Boy in their music video/films. The woman yelling is his mom, I think. I'm not sure who the girlfriend is. The guy jerking and falling on the floor is Spazz Attack, a character from one of their movies. The kid in the crib sticking a fork in the toaster is Booji Boy, another character from their movies. But I just love DEVO's energy and craziness. The whole idea of De-Evolution (mankind evolving backward from humans into potatoes) is hilarious to me, and of course, more accurate every year that goes by, I think.

Gary Numan is still a god, I think, after all these years. He actually answered a question I posted on his website, once. Nice guy.

I like The Eurythmics better than Annie Lennox, but I love this one song of Annie's that she did in her solo career. I think the video is really bizarre and kind of creepy, but I like the song a lot.

The Thompson Twins always have a special place in my heart. Corny, goofy, big hair, simplistic lyrics, but just good plain fun. This one's my favorite, because the lyrics are very meaningful to me.

I'm not a big fan of Canadian metal band Finger Eleven, but this single (widely condemned by their fans as a commercial sellout) is really pretty, and I love the visuals. Plus, it's in black and white. Much easier on the eyes. That's why I like old movies from the 1930s and 1940s. They're pretty to look at, and often they were just a lot better than today's movies.

This song makes a factory car stereo sound GREAT!

I annoy the geezers in my neighborhood with this song, as I cruise by with the windows rolled down. Or I would annoy them, if they all weren't stone deaf.

"Give It To Me" - Timbaland, featuring Nelly Furtado and Justin Timberlake

Remind me to tell you...

...about the persistent-bordering-on-singleminded-stupid Verizon phone customer service representative who answered my call to change my service. I was ready to kill him.

An interesting dilemma

By its very nature, a blog is where the author shares thoughts about what is important to him or her. Yet I'm sure sometimes a blog author has a thought or an experience which they feel that they cannot share without worrying the people who care about them. It must be an interesting dilemma.

A friend of mine has something weighing on her mind which I know she would love to blog about, but then her friends would worry about her and descend upon her like a flock of nattering, loving, and completely irritating birds, cooing and fluttering about her, driving her completely nuts.

So she avoids discussing what's on her mind. I can't blame her a bit. ;-)

A nice Halloween dinner with friends

My darling wife and I received a last-minute invitation to Pete and Beverly's house for dinner last night. We hadn't seen them for several months. My wife used to work with Pete at the fruit store, while Beverly works at the bank, along with Gail and Karen, who also showed up to dinner. It was a nice gathering, and Bev fed us til we couldn't move. ;-) A few trick-or-treaters came to the door, including some teenaged boys dressed like bandits (which made us nervous), but far fewer trick-or-treaters came than in past years, said Bev.

It was a nice evening. I'll put up pictures later.

Later is now.

Bev, Pete, and my darling wife.


Gail and Karen from the bank, and Karen's husband Roger. Keep in mind that I am the baby in this group by about 20 years.


Tiny trick-or-treaters.


Larger trick-or-treaters, fattened up by years of candy. Except the little adopted Chinese girl, who seemed baffled by the whole thing. She was adorable.